V 


BERKELEY 


^ 


JNIVERSl 
OR1 


EARTH 
S  "ICNCES 
U3RARY 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION: 


A   POPULAR   VIEW 

OF 

SOME  OF  THE  GRAND  CONCLUSIONS  OF  THE  SCIENCES 

IN   REFERENCE    TO 

THE  HISTORY  OF  MATTER  AND  OF  LIFE. 

TOGETHER    WITH 

A  STATEMENT  OF  THE  INTIMATIONS  OF  SCIENCE  RESPECTING  THE 

PRIMORDIAL  CONDITION  AND  THE  ULTIMATE  DESTINY 

OF  THE  EARTH  AND  THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM. 


By  ALEXANDER  WINCHELL,  LL.D., 

•BOFKSSOB    OF   GEOLOGY,   ZOOLOGY,  AND    BOTANY    IN    TUB   UNIVERSITY    OF    MICHIGAN, 
AND   DIRECTOR   OF   TIIK   STATE   GEOLOGICAL   SURVEY. 


Hfflify  Kllustratfons. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN  SQUARE. 
I87O. 


PALEONTOLOGY  LIBRARY 
Gift  of  C.  A.  Kofoid 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 
Harper  &   Brothers, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF  THREE  SWEET  NAMES, 
JULIE,   STELLA,   AND    ALLY, 

ONCE  BLENDED  WITH  THE  LABORS  OF  THE  STUDY  AND  THE  LABOR- 
ATORY—THE INSPIRATION   OF  HIGH  AMBITION 
AND  SUSTAINING  HOPE, 

NOW    ADOPTED    IN    THE    LANGUAGE    OF   THE   ANGELS, 

THESE    CHAPTERS    ARE 
A FFE C TIONA  TELY   DEDICA  TED. 


\AJSX 


SCIENCES 
LIBRARY 


PREFACE. 


THE  work  here  offered  to  the  public  will  be  found 
suited,  it  is  hoped,  to  two  classes  of  readers.  There 
is  a  numerous  class  of  intelligent  persons  who  do  not 
find  it  convenient  to  possess  themselves  of  all  the  more 
important  conclusions  of  the  physical  sciences  by  a  re- 
sort either  to  original  memoirs  or  to  formal  scientific 
treatises,  but  who  nevertheless  recognize  the  great  inter- 
est of  the  developments  of  recent  science,  and  would  be 
glad  to  be  put  in  a  position  to  take  a  panoramic  survey 
of  its  grand  generalizations.  Such  an  opportunity  the 
author  has  aimed  to  present. 

The  work  will  also  be  found  useful  as  an  aid  in  re- 
view.  The  student  may  plod  ever  so  diligently  and  ever 
so  intelligently  through  the  details  of  a  science;  he  is 
apt  to  gain  only  vague  impressions  and  floating  ideas, 
unless  enabled  to  take  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the 
field,  with  the  details  all  left  in  the  background,  and  the 
great  outlines  and  prominent  landmarks  all  brought  sa- 
liently  into  proper  relations  to  each  other.  As  the  en- 
gineer, who  may  have  completed  the  most  elaborate  sur- 
vey of  a  region,  requires  at  last  to  contemplate  it  from 
some  elevated  hill-top  to  gain  a  vivid  conception  of  the 
landscape  as  a  whole,  so  the  student  needs  to  be  lifted 
up  to  a  position  where  he  may  enjoy  a  bird's-eye  view 


Mf.VAF>RW7 


vi  PREFACE. 

of  the  entire  field  at  a  glance,  in  order  to  give  vividness, 
sharpness,  locality,  and  permanence  to  the  thoughts  and 
images  floating  in  his  mind. 

There  are  also  other  considerations  which  have  been 
prominently  before  the  mind  of  the  author  in  drawing  up 
some  of  the  following  chapters  for  publication.  He  can 
not  resist  the  conviction  that  Nature  is  intended  as  a  rev- 
elation of  God  to  all  intelligences.  If  it  be  so  intended, 
Nature  must  be  capable  of  fulfilling  the  offices  of  a  rev- 
elation, and  a  knowledge  of  her  phenomena  and  laws  must 
afford  the  data  of  a  theology.  Despite  the  skepticism  of 
a  certain  school  of  recent  writers,  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe  continue  to  inspire  in  the  soul  of  man  emotions 
of  religious  reverence  and  worship.  To  the  mass  of  mind, 
as  to  the  intelligence  of  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  Kepler, 
and  Newton,  and  Galen,  and  Paley,  and  Buckland,  the 
order  of  the  Cosmos  proclaims  an  Infinite  Intelligence. 
The  author  has  no  fear  that  the  ultimate  analysis  of  the 
grounds  of  this  belief  will  result  in  showing  them  unreal 
or  unsatisfactory  to  a  critical  philosophy.  Imbued  with 
such  convictions,  the  author  has  made  no  effort  to  dis- 
guise them.  He  has  not,  however,  entered  into  any  for- 
mal attempt  to  set  forth  the  relations  of  science  to  the 
system  of  Christian  faith,  though  the  way  has  been  fre- 
quently opened.  He  hopes  at  no  distant  day  to  resume 
the  consideration  of  these  subjects.  Besides  the  argu- 
ments made  familiar  by  Paley,  Whewell,  and  other  writ- 
ers on  Natural  Theology  —  to  which,  indeed,  fourfold 
strength  is  added  by  the  later  developments  of  the  phys- 
ical sciences  —  there  are  new  topics  thrust  before  the 
world  by  the  current  of  modern  thought,  upon  which  a 
flood  of  light  is  thrown  by  late  discoveries,  if,  in  fact, 


PRE  FA  CE.  vjj 

their  discussion  does  not  lie  exclusively  within  the  do- 
main of  Natural  Science.  Such  are  the  Antiquity  of 
the  Human  Kace,  the  Unity  of  the  Race,  the  Primeval 
Condition  of  Man,  Harmony  of  the  Mosaic  and  Geologic 
Cosmogonies,  the  Mosaic  Deluge,  Natural  Evil,  Develop- 
ment, the  Foreshadowing  of  Man's  Birthplace,  the  Unity 
of  Creation,  Teleological  and  Homological  Design  in  Na- 
ture. In  the  mean  time,  the  suggestions  thrown  out  in 
this  work  may  be  of  service  to  some  of  those  who  may 
be  seeking  for  the  grounds  of  a  rational  religious  belief. 

The  elucidation  of  the  great  problems  of  philosophic 
or  speculative  theology  is,  indeed,  the  highest  function 
of  science.  All  our  learning  would,  in  reality,  be  but 
the  "  vanity"  which  it  is  sometimes  reproached  with  be- 
ing if  it  could  reflect  no  light  upon  the  origin,  the  na- 
ture, the  duty,  and  the  destiny  of  man.  It  is  not  for  its 
facts,  but  for  the  significance  of  the  facts,  that  science  is 
valuable.  To  accumulate  the  data  of  science  is  good ; 
to  interpret  them  is  the  noblest  prerogative  of  a  thinking 
being.  Science  interpreted  is  theology.  Science  prose- 
cuted to  its  conclusions  leads  to  God. 

To  all,  then,  who  love  to  hold  communion  with  the 
thoughts  embodied  in  the  "visible  forms"  of  Nature; 
who  delight  to  contemplate  the  sublime,  persistent,  all- 
comprehending,  and  beneficent  plans  of  Deity  unfolding 
through  geological  cycles  toward  definite  and  intelligible 
ends ;  in  short,  to  all  who  love  to 

" Look  through  Nature  up  to  Nature's  God," 

these  pages  are  respectfully  submitted. 

The  Authoe. 
Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  October,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGK 

I.  Disclosure  of  the  Subject 13 

II.  The  Ordeal  by  Water 18 

III.  The  Ordeal  by  Fire 28 

IV.  The  Solar  System  in  a  Blaze 36 

V.  The  Reign  of  Fire 49 

VI.  Old  Ocean  commences  Work 56 

VII.  A  Ray  of  Life 65 

VIII.  The  Front  of  the  Procession  of  Life 73 

IX.  Discover^  of  the  Programme 94 

X.  The  Garden  of  Stone  Lilies 105 

XI.  The  Fairy  Sailor  and  his  Cousins 110 

XII.  Onward  through  the  Ages 122 

XIII.  An  Underground  Excursion 139 

XIV.  The  Scenery  of  the  Coal  Period 149 

XV.  The  Scouts  of  the  Reptile  Horde 164 

XVI.  The  Reign  of  Reptiles 173 

XVII.  The  Geography  of  the  Empire  of  Reptiles 195 

XVIII.  The  Reign  of  Mammals 199 

XIX.  The  Reign  of  Ice 213 

XX.  Labors  of  the  Ice-born  Torrents,  and  the  Ocean 

Burial 222 

XXI.  Resurrection  of  the  Continent 229 

XXII.  Former  Higher  Level  of  the  Great  Lakes 241 

XXIII.  Vitality  of  Buried  Vegetable  Germs..! 249 

XXIV.  Prairies  and  their  Treelessness 264 

XXV.  Something  about  Oil 272 

XXVI.  Something  about  Rock-salt  and  Gypsum 294 

XXVII.  Method  in  the  Growth  of  Continents 307 

XXVIII.  Method  in  the  History  of  Life 314 

XXIX.  World-thoughts 323 

A2 


X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXX.  Anticipations  of  Man  in  Nature 331 

XXXI.  The  Tooth  of  Time 338 

XXXII.  Primeval  Man 350 

XXXIII.  Will  there  be  an  Animal  superior  to  Man? 373 

XXXIV.  Popular"  Beliefs  in  Periodical  Catastrophes  to 

the  Universe 380 

XXXV.  Some  Thoughts  on  Perpetual  Motion 390 

XXXVI.  Will  the  Mountains  be  Leveled? ^ 397 

XXXVII.  The- Reign  of  Universal  Winter 402 

XXXVIII.  Thf^Sun  cooling  off 408 

XXXIX.  The  Machinery  of  the  Heavens  running  down...  417 

XL.  The  Cycles  of  Matter 428 

Appendix -. 433 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Nt>.  Pag« 

Trenton  High  Falls , Frontispiece. 

1.  Fossil  Bivalve— view  of  ventral  valve 14 

2.  Fossil  Bivalve — edge  view  of  both  valves 14 

3.  Common  River  Mussel — view  of  left  valve 14 

4.  Common  River  Mussel — view  of  both  valves  along  hinge  line . '  14 

5.  View  of  the  Temple  of  Serapis  at  Puzzuoli  in  1836 ; . , 20 

6.  View  of  Graham's  Island,  July  18, 1831 23 

7.  New  Volcano  of  Santorin,  1866 ' 24 

8.  Work  of  the  Elements  at  Cape  Stevens,  Acetic  Ocean 27 

9.  Shore  Erosion  on  the  Mendocino  Coast,  California.  •. ■    31 

10.  Fingal's  Cave  in  Staffa 34 

11.  Comparative  Volumes  of  the  gaseous  and  solid  Earth 39 

12.  The  Solar  System  rotating  in  a  gaseous  state 43 

13.  Primeval  Wrinkles  in  the  Earth's  forming  Crust 53 

14.  The  Primeval  Storm 55 

15.  Shore  Erosion  and  distribution  of  Sediments 57 

16.  Diagram  of  Chemical  Reactions  in  the  Primeval  Oce^n 61 

17.  Structure  of  the  oldest  known  Fossil 68 

18.  The  Humblest  of  Living  Creatures  (Amoeba  princeps) 70 

19.  Disturbed  Condition  of  Eozoic  Strata 74 

20.  The  Germ  of  the  North  American  Continent 74 

21.  A  St.  John's  Trilobite  (Paradoxides  Harlanf) 76 

22.  Cliffs  of  Potsdam  Sandstone,  New  York.. 77 

23.  A  Potsdam  Bivalve  (Lingula  prima) 79 

24.  A  Potsdam  Bivalve  (Lingula  antiqua) 79 

25.  Modern  Lingulas  anchored  to  a  Support 79 

26.  A  Potsdam  Trilobite  (Dicellocephalus  Minnesotensis) 80 

27.  A  Trilobite  rolled  up 80 

28.  Eye  of  a  Trilobite  magnified 81 

29.  A  Potsdam  Sea-weed  (Palceophycus  arthrophycus) 83 

30.  Outlines  of  Lake  Superior 84 

31.  Section  across  Lake  Superior , 84 

32.  The  Miner's  Castle,  "  Pictured  Rocks,"  Lake  Superior 86 

33.  The  Sail  Rock,  "  Pictured  Rocks,"  Lake  Superior 8S 

34.  The  Grand  Portal,  "  Pictured  Rocks,"  Lake  Superior. 89 

35.  Camp  on  the  Beach,  near  the  Chapel 90 

36.  The  Chapel,  "Pictured  Rocks,"  Lake  Superior 91 

37.  Chapel  Falls,  "  Pictured  Rocks,"  Lake  Superior 92 

38.  Section  across  the  Continent  of  North  America 95 

39.  Hydrographic  and  Orographic  Outlines  of  North  America 96 

40.  A  living  Crinoid  (Pentacrinus  caput-Medusce) 107 

41.  A  Trenton  Trilobite  (Asaphus  gigas) 108 

42.  The  Paper  Nautilus  (Argonauta  Argo) 110 

43.  Paper  Nautilus  with  the  arms  spread ' Ill 

44.  The  Eight-armed  Cuttle-fish 112 

45.  A  "Kraken  Octopod"  scuttling  a  Three-master 113 

46.  The  Pearly  Nautilus  (Nautilus  pompilius) 114 

47.  A  Straight  Chambered  Shell  (Ormoceras  tenuifilum) 115 

48.  A  Coiled  Chambered  Shell  (Trocholites  ammonius) ' 115 

49.  A  Devonian  Cephalopod  (Clymenia  Sedgwicki) 116 


xii  IL  LUSTRA  TI  ON 8. 

No.        /  Page 

50.  A  Carboniferous  Cephalopod  (Goniatites  Allei) 116 

51.  A  Mesozoic  Cephalopod  (Baculites  ovatus) 117 

52.  An  Ammonite  {Ammonites  canaliculatus) *  119 

53.  Plans  of  Septa  among  Chambered  Shells 119 

54.  Garpikes  of  North  America 120 

55.  The  Continent  at  the  end  of  the  Silurian  Age 123 

56.  An  Upper  Silurian  Sea-weed  (Arthrophycus  Harlani) 124 

57.  Ideal  Landscape  of  the  Devonian  Age 130 

58.  Trends  of  the  great  Limestone  Masses  of  the  United  States 135 

59.  Portrait  of  Hugh  Miller,  the  Scottish  Geologist 137 

60.  Miners  going  down  a  Shaft 140 

61.  View  in  an  English  Coal  Mine. 142 

62.  Explosion  in  a  Coal  Mine 144 

63.  Miner  at  Work— old  manner  of  working 146 

64.  Coal-plants  on  Shale 147 

65.  Ideal  Landscape  of  the  Coal  Period 150 

66.  Remains  of  a  Lepidodendron . . .  -. 157 

67.  Vertical  Tree-trunks  in  a  Coal  Mine 159 

68.  The  Continent  at  the  end  of  Paleozoic  Time 162 

Frond  of  an  ancient  Tree-fern  (Pecopteris) 163 

69.  Labyrinthodon  (restored) 172 

70.  Ideal  Landscape  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles , 177 

71.  Ichthyosaur  and  Plesiosaur  in  Conflict 179 

72.  Haunts  of  the  Pterodactyl 181 

73.  Footprints  from  the  Connecticut  Valley 183 

74.  A  Three-toed  Reptile  (restored) 184 

75.  Tooth  of  an  extinct  New  Jersey  Saurian b 192 

76.  A  gigantic  extinct  Reptile  of  North  America  (Hadrosaurus  Foulki) 193 

77.  The  Continent  at  the  end  of  Mesozoic  Time 200 

78.  The  Bad  Lands  of  Dakotah 206 

79.  Portrait  of  David  Dale  Owen,  the  eminent  Western  Geologist 211 

80.  Great  Glacier,  Bute  Inlet,  Alaska 216 

81.  Glacier  Furrows  and  Scratches  in  Michigan 218 

82.  River  issuing  from  a  Swiss  Glacier , 223 

83.  Phenomena  of  Wells  and  Springs  in  Drift  Materials 233 

84.  Former  High  Waters  of  the  Great  Lakes 244 

85.  Sugar  Loaf,  Mackinac  Island 247 

86.  Arched  Rock,  Mackinac  Island 24S 

87.  Mining  Cedar  Logs  in  a  buried  Swamp 258 

88.  The  Noble  Oil  Well,  Pennsylvania , 274 

89.  Blowing  and  Flowing  Oil  Wells . 285 

90.  View  of  the  Salt  Works,  Mason  City,  West  Virginia 294 

91.  Section  across  the  Lower  Peninsula  of  Michigan 299 

*  92.  Section  of  the  Onondaga  Salt  Basin,  New  York 303 

93.  Portrait  of  Professor  James  D.  Dana 312 

94.  A  Reminiscence  of  the  Trilobites  (Glyptonotm  antarcticus) 322 

95.  Section  across  the  Basin  of  Middle  Tennessee 342 

96.  Upper  Cataract  Creek,  near  Big  Canon,  Colorado 346 

97.  Big  Caflon  of  the  Colorado 348 

98.  Pre-historic  Man  and  Scenes 351 

99.  Extinct  giant  Elk  compared  with  Man 355 

100.  Engraving  by  a  Pre-historic  Artist—the  Hairy  Mammoth 358 

101.  The  Hairy  Mammoth  (restored) 359 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DISCLOSURE    OF   THE    SUBJECT. 


WHAT  is  this  which  I  have  opened  from  the  solid 
rock?  It  has  the  appearance  of  a  bivalve  shell,  like 
a  clam  .or  an  oyster.  I  was  passing  a  delightful  summer- 
day  amid  the  romantic  scenery  of  Trenton  Falls,  and  broke 
from  the  rocky  wall  of  the  deep-cut  gorge  these  unexpect- 
ed forms.  Who  has  not  stumbled  upon  similar  shapes  at 
the  foot  of  some  beetling  cliff,  or  washed  from  the  weath- 
ered soil  of  some  cultivated  field  ?  Pause  a  moment,  for 
these  are  remarkable  and  unexpected  discoveries.  Let  us 
interrogate  these  forms. 

They  can  not  be  the  shells  of  oysters  or  clams ;  for,  in 
the  first  place,  they  are  only  stone  in  substance,  with  a  pe- 
culiarly dead  and  mineralized  appearance.  In  the  next 
place,  they  are  nearly  three  hundred  miles  from  salt  water, 
and  as  many  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Perhaps, 
then,  they  are  the  dead  and  petrified  shells  of  some  fresh- 
water molluscs,  like  mussels.  This  can  not  be,  because  the 
resemblance  is  not  sufficiently  close.  The  beak,  or  most 
prominent  part  of  these  shell-like  forms,  is  exactly  in  the 
middle  (Fig.  1,  a ;  see  page  14),  while  the  beak  of  the 
mussel  is  always  nearer  to  one  end  (Fig.  3,  a ;  see  page 
14).    And,  farther,  one  piece  or  valve  of  these  problematic 


14 


SKETCHES   OF  CHEAT  ION. 


waifs  has  a  different  degree  of  convexity  from  the  other 
(Fig.  2),  while  with  mussels  both  valves  are  equally  con- 


Fig.  1. 

Trenton    Falls :    side    view 


Fossil  bivalve  from 
j  view 
a.  The 


of  ventral   valve, 
"beak." 


Fig.  2.  Edge  view  of  the 
two  valves,  showing 
their  unequal  convex- 
ity and  depth. 


Common  River  Mn 
valve,    a.  The 


v  of  left 


beak." 


vex  (Fig.  4).  In  fact,  the  more  we  study  these  things,  the 
less  they  look  like  mussel-shells — the  less  they  look  like 
any  thing  else  with  which  we  are  acquainted.     I  have 

heard  men  familiarly 
call  these  objects  by 
the  name  of  "clam- 
shells;" and  others 
they  call  "snails;"  and 
still  other  curious  struc- 
tures, frequently  en- 
countered in  cultivated 
fields,  they  designate  as  "  petrified  honey-comb"  and  "  pet- 
rified wasps'-nests."  But  a  few  moments'  careful  observa- 
tion suffices  to  show 
that  these  things  differ 
materially  from  the  ob- 
jects whose  names  have 
been     bestowed     upon  _ 

*         Fig.  4.  View  of  "  hinge  line"  of  the  same,  show- 
them.  inS  the  equal  convexity  of  the  two  valves. 

It  seems  unreasonable  to  suppose,  therefore,  that  these 
shell-like  forms  have  ever  belonged  to  living  animals. 
They  are  probably  but  "  mere  freaks  of  nature."  Perhaps 
they  have  been  produced  by  "  the  influences  of  the  stars." 


DISCLOSURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  15 

Or,  it  may  be,  there  is  some  mysterious  "  principle"  in  the 
earth  which,  by  some  sort  of  "  fermentation,"  produces 
these  semblances  to  living  forms.  Or,  still  again,  as  these 
rocks  existed  before  animals  were  created,  it  may  be  that 
the  Creator  moulded  these  lifeless  shapes  to  serve  as  "  pro- 
totypes" or  "  models"  from  which  the  living  forms  of  ani- 
mals were  to  be  copied.  Or,  who  knows,  finally,  but  the 
old  conjecture  of  Epicurus  may  be  truth?  Since  matter 
must  exist  in  some  form,  may  we  not  regard  these  as  some 
of  the  possible  forms  under  which  the  particles  of  matter 
fortuitously  fall  ? 

So  reasoned  the  world  prior  to  the  sixteenth  century. 
But  this  was  when  the  philosopher  sat  in  his  closet  and 
argued  how  things  ought  to  be,  instead  of  going  forth  to 
observe  how  things  are.  We  have  learned  to  contemplate 
Nature  with  a  different  spirit.  We  have  pulled  down  the 
house  of  many  a  speculatist  about  his  ears.  We  have  de- 
molished many  a  universe  constructed  of  the  cobwebs  of 
logic.  We  do  not  despise  first  principles  and  necessary 
deductions,  but  we  have  discovered  a  more  direct  and  a 
more  certain  way  of  arriving  at  a  history  of  the  universe. 
We  interrogate  the  facts  which  surround  us,  and  have 
found  them  able  to  narrate  a  history  which  never  entered 
the  imaginations  of  the  schoolmen.  The  phenomena  of 
Nature  are  the  premises  of  our  reasoning  instead  of  its 
conclusions.  We  have  learned  to  look  upon  Nature  with 
a  profounder  respect ;  and,  though  the  alphabet  of  our 
philosophy  be  trees,  and  birds,  and  rocks,  and  fossils,  and 
other  material  things  which  metaphysics  affects  to  despise, 
we  have  found  that  they  combine  themselves  into  a  lan- 
guage freighted  with  grand  conceptions,  and  rich  in  utter- 
ances of  the  unseen,  the  high,  and  the  holy.  It  has  been 
revealed  to  us  that  the  vast  system  of  Nature  is  the  ex- 
pression of  a  divine  thought — that  the  wide,  blue,  restless 


16  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

ocean  is  the  symbol  o*f  a  divine  idea — the  swelling  prairie, 
the  rocky  cordillera,  the  teeming  populations  of  land,  and 
sea,  and  air,  are  the  utterances  of  divine  conceptions — the 
stirring  leaf,  the  basking  butterfly,  the  glistening  pebble 
on  the  strand,  are  thoughts  of  the  Infinite,  crystallized  in 
visible  things,  thrown  down  before  us  to  arrest  our  atten- 
tion— strewn  over  our  pathway  to  provoke  our  curiosity 
and  arouse  the  powers  of  the  soul. 

We  have  listened  to  the  recital  of  the  pebble,  and  its 
simple  story  has  turned  our  thoughts  backward  over  the 
flight  of  ages,  and  disclosed  a  marvelous  unity  running 
through  the  long  series  of  revolutions  and  innovations  to 
which  our  domestic  planet  has  been  subjected.  We  have 
read  the  epic  of  the  trilobite,  and  have  learned  of  a  Deity 
inaugurating  plans  in  the  infancy  of  our  earth  which  are 
still  in  process  of  consummation.  We  have  lighted  the 
vistas  of  the  fleeting  ages.  We  have  studied  the  records 
of  universal  empires,  and  the  monuments  which  perpetuate 
the  memory  of  powerful  dynasties.  We  have  seen  the  pro- 
cession of  living  forms  pass  by,  and  discovered  them  mar- 
shaled by  a  single  leading  Intelligence.  We  have  wit- 
nessed the  progressive  development  of  the  physical  world 
— its  successive  adaptations  to  its  successive  populations, 
and  its  completion  and  special  preparation  for  the  occu- 
pancy of  man,  and  have  learned  that  the  whole  creation 
is  the  product  of  one  eternal,  intelligent  master  purpose — 
the  coherent  result  of  one  Mind. 

What  higher  subject  of  contenrplation  than  the  world- 
phenomena  which  express  the  thoughts  of  the  Creator? 
What  nobler  history  to  study  than  the  annals  of  races  and 
revolutions  in  which  the  Almighty  purpose,  instead  of  hu- 
man will,  has  been  the  controlling  power  ?  What  antiqui- 
ties more  awe-inspiring  than  the  ruins  of  continents  and 
the  tombs  of  races  whose  splendid  dynasties  passed  their 


DISCLOSURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT.  17 

meridian  and  decline  while  yet  the  family  of  Adam  was  in 
the  unborn  future,  and  God,  in  the  awful  solitudes  of  earth, 
worked  out  his  all-embracing  plans  ?  From  the  elevated 
stand-point  of  modern  science,  the  view  before  us  is  inspir- 
ing. Let  us  thread  a  few  of  the  footpaths  leading  up  to 
this  enchanting  altitude. 


18  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    ORDEAL   BY  WATER. 

WE  were  too  hasty  in  pronouncing  it  impossible  that 
the  little  shell  struck  from  the  gorge-wall  of  the 
roaring  stream  could  ever  have  belonged  to  a  living  ani- 
mal. It  is  quite  true  that  no  being  now  exists  in  the 
waters  of  the  land  or  the  ocean  which  can  be  exactly  iden- 
tified with  it.  There  are  forms  in  the  sea,  however,  which 
possess  every  characteristic  by  which  we  distinguished  it 
from  the  river  mussel.  The  resemblances  are  so  close  that 
we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  this  may  really  be  a  marine 
form.  We  look  again  at  the  pile  of  rocks  from  which  this 
specimen  was  taken.  Layer  after  layer  succeeds  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top ;  and  here  and  there  are  other  similar 
forms  imbedded  between  the  sheets  of  shale.  If  these  are 
marine  forms,  these  strata  are  marine  sediments.  But  here 
is  the  difficulty.  This  place  is  hundreds  of  feet  above  the 
surface  of  the  sea,  and  if  ever  the  sea  stood  at  this  level 
the  greater  part  of  the  continent  must  have  been  sub- 
merged. But  have  we  not  a  record  of  such  a  submer- 
gence ?  Yes,  indeed ;  the  sacred  writers  tell  us  of  a  deluge 
which  destroyed  the  human  family.  A  tradition  of  the 
same  has  been  embalmed  in  Ovid's  myth  of  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha ;  and  nearly  every  nation  under  the  sun,  from  the 
cultured  Greek  to  the  savage  Koloschian  of  Alaska,  has  its 
legend  under  which  the  memory  of  the  Deluge  has  been 
perpetuated.  Shall  we  then  content  ourselves  with  the 
conclusion  that  this  pile  of  strata  was  laid  down  by  the 
waters  of  the  Noachian  flood,  and  that  these  molluscs  were 


THE  Oil  DEAL  BY  WATER.  19 

the  contemporaries  of  the  beasts  which  inhabited  the  ark  ? 
A  conclusion  thus  hastily  reached  would  have  suited  the 
preceding  age ;  but  the  spirit  of  modern  research  bids  us 
examine  farther.  We  lay  down  our  lfttle  shell,  and  set  out 
upon  the  search  for  evidences  to  confirm  the  suspicions 
already  awakened,  that  it  was  once  the  home  of  a  sea- 
dwelling  mollusc. 

Go  with  me  first  to  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Naples. 
There,  near  the  ancient  town  of  Puzzuoli,  at  the  head  of  an 
indentation  in  the  Bay  of  Balae,  stand  three  marble  pillars 
forty  feet  in  height.     Their  pedestals  are  washed  by  the 
waters  of  the  Mediterranean.     The  marble  pavement  upon 
which  they  stand,  and  which  was,  in  the  second  century, 
the  floor  of  a  temple,  or,  perhaps,  of  a  bath-house,  is  sunken 
three  feet  beneath  the  waves.     Six  feet  beneath  this  is  an- 
other costly  pavement  of  mosaic,  which  must  have  formed 
the  original  floor  of  the  temple.     What,  does  all  this  indi- 
cate ?    The  foundations  of  a  temple  would  not  be  laid  nine 
feet  beneath  the  level  of  the  sea.     They  must  have  been 
built  upon  the  solid  land.     As  the  land  subsided  a  new 
foundation  was  laid,  and  a  new  structure  was  reared  above 
the  encroaching  waves.     But  look  upward  and  examine 
the  surface  of  the  marble.     For  twelve,  feet  above  their 
pedestals  these  pillars  are  smooth  and  uninjured.     Above 
this  is  a  »ne  of  about  nine  feet,  throughout  which  the  mar- 
ble is  perforated  with  numerous  holes.     Exploring  these 
holes,  we  find  them  to  enlarge  inward,  and  at  the  bottom 
of  each  repose  the  remains  of  a  little  boring  bivalve  shell — 
Lithodomus.     This  little  bivalve  is  the  same  species  which 
is  now  inhabiting  the  adjacent  waters.     We  know  well  its 
habits.     It  does  not  live  in  the  open  water.     It  burrows  in 
the  sand,  or  bores  its  way  into  the  shells  of  other  molluscs, 
or  into  solid  stone.     But  it  never  climbs  trees  or  marble 
columns  to  build  its  nest,  like  a  l}ird  in  the  air.     How,  then, 


Fig.  5.  View  of  the  Temple  of  Serapis  at  Puzzuoli  in  1836. 


THE   ORDEAL  BY   WATER  21 

does  it  occur  twenty-three  feet  above  the  surface  of  the 
water  ?  There  evidently  has  been  a  time  when  the  whole 
column,  to  the  height  of  these  Lithodomi,  was  submerged. 
The  oscillations  of  the  surface,  therefore,  as  shown  by  these 
indications,  wtere,  first,  a  subsidence  and  submergence  of 
the  original  foundation,  requiring  the  construction  of  the 
second  one  six  feet  above  the  other;  the  continuation  of 
the  subsidence  till  the  original  pavement  was  twenty-seven 
feet  beneath  the  surface,  at  which  depth  it  remained  a  suffi- 
cient time  for  the  little  stone-borers  to  penetrate  to  the 
heart  of  the  pillar — a  work  which  they  required  a  lifetime 
to  accomplish.  Next  occurred  an  elevation,  raising  the 
Lithodomi  out  of  the  water,  and  thus  ending  their  exist- 
ence. Nor  is  this  all.  Observations  made  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  show  that  the  foundations 
of  this  temple  are  again  sinking  at  the  rate  of  one  inch  per 
year. 

Such  an  example,  thus  authenticated,  throws  a  flood  of 
light  upon  the  problems  of  geology.  It  establishes  the 
doctrine  of  the  unstable  condition  of  the  land.  The  rock  is 
no  longer  the  emblem  of  firmness  and  stability.  We  have 
here  a  monument  which  perpetuates  the  remembrance  of 
secular  oscillations  in  the  level  of  a  continent.  The  little 
Lithodomus  has  graven  the  inscriptions  upon  the  marble 
pillar,  even  at  the  cost  of  its  own  life.  Such  care  has  Prov- 
idence ever  exercised  to  leave  in  our  hands  a  key  by  which 
to  unlock  the  mysteries,of  past  ages. 

It  is  established,  then,  that  the  level  of  the  land  may 
vary — that  the  shores  of  a  continent  may  be  submerged, 
and  that  at  a  subsequent  period  they  may  rise  again  from 
the  waves.  But  the  doctrine  does  not  rest  upon  an  iso- 
lated example.  The  oscillations  recorded  upon  the  temple 
of  Jupiter  Serapis  are  only  a  clear  and  beautiful  illustration 
•of  the  nature  of  the  proofs  which  exist  upon  every  shore. 


22  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

The  columns  of  other  temples  are  in  a  similar  manner 
found  submerged.  Roman  roads  have  been  discovered 
many  feet  under  water.  Ancient  sea-coasts  have  been  ob- 
served far  inland.  On  this  continent  the  shore-line  of  the 
Atlantic  is  experiencing  a  series  of  slow,  undulatory  move- 
ments. At  St.  Augustine,  in  Florida,  the  stumps  of  cedar 
trees  stand  beneath  the  hard  beach  shell-rock,  immersed  in 
the  water  at  the  lowest  tides.  Some  of  the  sounds  upon 
the  coast  of  North  Carolina,  which  have  been  navigable 
within  the  memory  of  living  sea-captains,  are  now  impassa- 
ble bars  or  emerging  sand-flats.  Along  the  coast  of  New 
jersey  the  sea  has  encroached,  within  sixty  years,  upon  the 
sites  of  former  habitations,  and  entire  forests  have  been 
prostrated  by  the  inundation.  In  the  harbor  of  Nantucket 
the  upright  stumps  of  trees  are  found  eight  feet  below  the 
lowest  tide,  with  their  roots  still  buried  in  their  native  soil. 
Similar  ruins  of  ancient  submarine  forests  occur  on  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard,  and  on  the  north  side  of  Cape  Cod,  and 
again  at  Portland.  In  the  region  of  the  St.  Croix  River, 
separating  Maine  from  New  Brunswick,  the  coast  has  been 
raised,  carrying  deposits  of  recent  shells  and  sea-weeds  in 
one  instance  to  the  height  of  twenty-eight  feet  above  the 
present  surface  of  the  sea.  The  island  of  Grand  Manan, 
off  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  River,  is  slowly  rotating  on 
an  axis,  so  that,  while  the  south  side  is  gradually  dipping 
beneath  the  waves,  the  north  is  lifted  into  high  bluffs. 
Near  the  River  St.  John  is  an  area,  of  twenty  square  miles 
containing  marine  shells  and  plants  recently  elevated  from 
the  sea.  One  hundred  and  fifty  miles  east  of  here,  the 
shore  is  experiencing  another  subsidence.  The  north  side 
of  Nova  Scotia  is  sinking,  while  the  south  is  rising,  inso- 
much that  breakers  now  appear  off  the  southern  coast  in 
places  safely  navigable  years  ago.  The  ancient  city  of 
Louisburg,  on  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  is  another  testi-- 


THE  ORDEAL  BY  WATER.  23 

mony  to  the  uneasy  condition  of  the  land.  This  place  was 
once  the  strong-hold  of  France  in  America,  and  had  one  of 
the  finest  harbors  in  the  world.  It  was  well  fortified,  and 
had  a  population  of  twenty  thousand  souls  within  its  walls. 
It  was  destroyed  during  the  French  and  Indian  war,  and 
the  inhabitants  dispersed.  But  Nature  had  herself  or- 
dained its  abandonment.  The  rock  on  which  the  brave 
General  Wolfe  landed  has  nearly  disappeared.  The  sea 
now  flows  within  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  sites  once  in- 
habited have  become  the  ocean's  bed.  In  1822  the  entire 
coast  of  Chili  was  elevated  to  a  height  varying  from  two 
to  seven  feet — an  extent  equal  to  the  area  of  New  England 
and  New  York  having  been  lifted  up  bodily.    In  1831,  an 

island,  since  called  Graham's 
Island,  sprang  from  the  bed  of 
the  Mediterranean  between  Sic- 
ily and  the  site  of  ancient  Car- 
thage. The  island  is  now  again 
but  a  sunken  reef.  Another  isl- 
and, as  recently  as  1866,  rose 
from  the  bottom  of  the  Grecian 
Archipelago,  before  the  very 
eyes  of  the  American  consul, 
Mr.  Canfield,  bearing  upon  its 
Fig.  6.  View  of  Graham's  Island,  July  slimy  back  fragments  of  wrecks 
18' 1831-  that  had  been  sunken  in  the  lit- 

tle harbor  of  Santorin.  Similar  ocean-births  had  many  times 
previously  been  witnessed  in  the  same  vicinity.  A  hundred 
and  sixty-six  years  before  our  era  the  island  of  Hyera  rose. 
It  was  lifted  successively  higher  by  earthquake-throbs  in 
the  years  19,  726,  and  1427.  In  1707  Nea-Kameni  made 
its  appearance,  and  in  1773  Micra-Kameni.  Even  the  an- 
cient islands  of  Santorin,  Thrasia,  and  Aphronisi  themselves 
rose  from  the  sea  at  the  termination  of  an  earthquake  some 


THE  ORDEAL  BY  WATER.  25 

nses  before  the  Christian  era.  The  ancient  Greek  fable  of 
the  floating  islands  called  Symplegades  probably  origina- 
ted in  the  volcanic  movements  of  the  earth's  crust  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Thracian  Bosporus,  the  ineffaceable  traces 
of  which  are  still  to  be  seen. 

The  entire  chain  of  the  Aleutian  Islands,  ranging  across 
the  North  Pacific  from  Alaska  to  Kamtschatka,  is  but  a 
series  of  vestiges  of  an  ancient  ridge  of  land  now  worn  out, 
but  originally  raised  by  the  power  of  volcanic  fires  which 
are  even  to-day  smouldering  beneath  the  bed  of  the  sea. 
These  fires,  as  late  as  1796,  burst  out  a  few  miles  north  of 
the  island  of  Unalaska,  and  added  another  member  to  the 
group,  which  has  continued  to  grow  in  size  till  recent 
times. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  records  of  continental  oscilla- 
tions are  not  confined  to  sea-coast  lines,  but  may  be  de- 
tected along  our  lakes  and  in  the  valleys  of  the  rivers. 

If  such  changes  occur  in  a  lifetime,  what  may  not  a  slow 
subsidence  or  elevation  amount  to  in  the  lifetime  of  our 
race  ?  A  depression  in  the  valley  of  the  Lower  Mississippi 
of  only  three  hundred  feet  would  admit  the  waters  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  A  trifling 
depression  in  Northern  Illinois  would  furnish  an  outlet  to 
the  Gulf  for  Lakes  Michigan,  Superior,  and  Huron.  A  de- 
pression of  eight  hundred  feet  would  submerge  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States. 

How  easy,  then,  in  view  of  facts  which  every  body  can 
observe,  to  admit  the  geological  doctrine  of  the  former 
submergence  of  all  the  continents.  The  shells  broken  from 
the  wall  of  the  gorge  at  Trenton  Falls,  though  unlike  any 
fresh-water  forms,  are  still  the  kindred  of  beings  now  living 
in  the  Atlantic ;  and,  with  the  evidence  before  us,  we  can 
not  resist  the  conviction  that  the  dominion  of  the  sea  once 
extended  over  the  Empire  State.     As  the  relics  of  Roman 

B 


26  SKETCHES  OF  CREATIOK 

dominion  are  found  in  England  and  France,  and  Germany 
and  Palestine,  and  nobody  questions  the  testimony  of  these 
relics,  so  the  antiquities  of  Old  Ocean  have  been  exhumed 
from  the  soil  of  every  state.  Who  can  now  perpetrate  the 
folly  of  denying  to  one  empire  the  universality  which  every 
body  concedes  to  the  other  ? 

So  reasoned  Fracastoro  when,  in  151 7,  the  exhumation  of 
a  multitude  of  curious  petrifactions  at  Verona,  in  Italy, 
had  aroused  the  speculations  of  numerous  writers.  But  his 
reasonable  suggestion  was  too  bold  for  the  philosophy  of 
that  age,  and  Fracastoro  was  stamped  a  heretic  by  that 
papal  orthodoxy  which  persecuted  also 

"The  starry  Galileo  with  his  woes." 


y^ 


iiliiiiSiiiiiil 


28  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    ORDEAL  BY   FIRE. 

TT  required  a  century  to  gain  the  credence  of  the  world 
-*-  to  the  suggestion  of  Fracastoro.  This  point  gained,  it 
took  a  century  and  a  half  to  overthrow  the  popular  belief 
that  the  inhumation  of  fossil  remains  was  all  effected  at 
the  time  of  the  Mosaic  deluge.  But  few  observations  of 
the  nature  of  those  already  cited  had,  at  this  period,  been 
made.  With  our  present  knowledge  of  the  oscillations 
which  are  going  on  in  the  comparative  level  of  continents 
and  oceans,  he  would  seem  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  argu- 
ment who  can  still  deny  that  our  beautiful  prairies  have, 
for  ages  instead  of  months,  been  the  bed  of  a  sea  which 
rolled  its  surges  from  the  Adirondacks  on  the  east  to  the 
Sierra  Nevada  on  the  west.  Admitting  the  deluge  of  Noah 
to  have  been  universal,  were  the  agencies  in  operation  dur- 
ing the  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  of  its  continuance  suf- 
ficiently energetic  to  accumulate  sediments  twenty  miles 
in  thickness  in  that  brief  period  ?  Such  a  conclusion  is 
contradicted  by  all  our  observations,  instead  of  being  sus- 
tained by  them.  These  stratified  rocks  cover  nineteen 
twentieths  of  the  earth's  surface;  and  the  material  for 
them  has  been  ground  from  the  rocky  shores  of  ancient 
islands  and  continents  by  the  beating  of  the  waves.  If 
they  have  thus  been  distributed  by  the  action  of  water,  it 
has  been  a  slow  process.  Admitting,  then,  the  Noachian 
deluge  to  have  been  universal,  and  to  have  covered  the 
mountains — since  they  also  a^:e  made  of  fossiliferous  strata, 
even  to  the  altitude  of  eight  thousand  feet — is  it  likely 


THE  ORDEAL  BY  FIRE.  29 

that  a  hundred  thousand  feet  of  sediments  would  have 
been  deposited  in  one  hundred  and  fifty  days,  or  at  the 
rate  of  one  eighth  of  a  mile  a  day  ? 

Consider,  also,  the  myriads  of  organic  remains  entombed 
in  these  sediments.  Their  number  is  fifteen  or  twenty  times 
as  great  as  that  of  all  existing  animals.  No  evidence  exists 
that  the  waters  of  the  Mosaic  flood  were  so  immensely  pop- 
ulous, nor  that  they  were  endowed  with  such  destructive 
energy,  as  to  sweep  from  existence  cubic  miles  of  aquatic 
forms.  And,  lastly,  it  will  be  noted  that  four  fifths,  at  least, 
of  the  fossil  species  are  now  extinct ;  and,  if  they  were  ex- 
terminated by  the  deluge,  the  objector  to  geological  teach- 
ing trips  his  own  feet,  for  Moses  says  that  Noah  preserved 
pairs  of  "all  flesh  wherein  is  the  breath  of  life,  and  of  every 
thing  that  is  in  the  earth."  The  objector  asserts  that  these 
animals,  now  admitted  to  be  extinct,  were  living  at  the  time 
of  the  Deluge,  and  were  exterminated  by  that  event.  The 
sacred  historian  asserts  that  the  animals  living  at  the  time 
of  the  Deluge  were  preserved  from  extinction  by  the  hand 
of  Noah. 

Equally  improbable  and  equally  illogical  is  the  position 
of  certain  petrified  philosophers,  who  maintain  that  God 
created  every  portion  of  the  earth's  crust  as  we  find  it. 
We  must  thus  ignore  the  indications  of  every  one  of  a 
myriad  of  facts.  As  well  deny  that  human  hands  built 
the  Roman  aqueduct,  or  made  the  pottery  exhumed  from 
buried  cities  or  Indian  mounds.  As  well  avow  our  disbe- 
lief that  Vesuvius  ejected  the  lavas  which  incrust  its  sides 
— that  the  lightning  has  struck  the  riven  oak — that  the 
pebble  upon  the  sea-shore  has  been  rounded  by  the  action 
of  the  waves — or  that  the  vacated  shell  by  its  side  was, 
not  long  since,  the  home  of  an  animal  enjoying  its  exist- 
ence in  the  brine.  Such  a  belief  is  to  contradict  all  ap- 
pearances— to  reject  that  which  is  most  probable  and  al- 


30  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

most  demonstrable  for  that  which  is  contrary  to  all  obser- 
vation. The  geological  doctrine  is  not  to  deny  the  unlim- 
ited power  of  Deity,  for  nothing  has  done  more  than  geol- 
ogy to  unfold  and  demonstrate  that  power.  It  is  to  apply 
the  same  reasoning  to  geological  facts  as  we  apply  to  other 
phenomena.  In  the  material  world,  and  within  the  scope 
of  our  investigation,  we  witness  no  result  which  is  not  the 
effect  of  the  antecedent  energy  of  what  we  call  secondary 
causes,  operating  according  to  established  methods.  What- 
ever can  be  accounted  for  by  reference  to  such  modes  of 
operation,  we  feel  ourselves  precluded  from  attributing  to 
an  extraordinary  and  miraculous  agency. 

In  view  of  the  facts,  therefore,  we  regard  it  as  certain 
that  a  large  part  of  the  solid  crust  of  our  globe  has  passed 
through  an  ablution  in  the  sea.  Particle  by  particle,  grain 
by  grain,  pebble  by  pebble,  has  been  worn  from  the  pre- 
existing rocks ;  and,  after  being  rolled  to  and  fro  for  ages 
by  the  surges  of  the  sea,  has  found  its  way  to  the  deep 
and  quiet  ocean-bed.  There  layers  innumerable  have  been 
piled  upon  it.  Some  of  the  agencies  of  Nature  have  solid- 
ified these  vast  accumulations  of  sediment;  an  earthquake- 
throe  has  resulted  in  the  birth  of  a  continent,  over  which 
the  mighty  mutations  of  a  geological  epoch  have  swept  in 
grandeur  which  no  human  eye  was  yet  created  to  contem- 
plate; then,  in  the  preappointed  order  of  Providence,  man 
came  upon  the  earth;  and  to-day,  after  the  lapse  of  an  in- 
terval of  time  which,  to  human  apprehension,  is  infinite,'we 
split  open  the  solid  layer,  and  behold  !  the  very  pebble  of 
granite  which  was  loosed  from  the  primitive  rock  in  the 
dim  ages  of  the  earth's  history,  which  reach  far  back  into 
the  eternity  of  God  !  And  by  its  side  is  a  form — an  ani- 
mal form — -clearly  an  animal  form ;  but,  if  we  search  the 
world  through,  we  shall  not  find  its  like  among  existing 
beings.     It  is  a  strange  and  uncouth  form.     It  was  one  of 


THE   ORDEAL  BY  FIRE. 


31 


Fig.  9.  Shore  Erosion  on  the  Mendociuo  Coast,  California. 

the  earliest  representatives  of  organization  upon  our  globe. 
Here,  in  deep  ocean  solitudes,  it  lived  and  sported  its  day, 
monarch,  perhaps,  of  an  empire  thrice  the  extent  of  Alex- 


32  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

der's.  And  here  it  perished — its  entire  lineage  perished. 
Not  a  solitary  individual  has  survived ;  and  there  is  not  a 
living  being  upon  all  the  earth,  or  in  all  the  wide  realm 
of  the  ocean,  with  which  we  may  compare  this  anomalous 
vestige,  and  determine  how  it  stood  related  to  other  be- 
ings. Not  one,  I  said  ;  but  the  faithful  explorations  of  the 
forgotten  zoologist  have  brought  to  light,  perchance,  a  sol- 
itary family  which  has  inherited  the  outre  forms  of  this 
primeval  ancestor.  So  do  we  find  the  mute  monarchs  of 
the  ancient  continents  and  seas  represented  in  modern 
courts  by  a  few  obscure  individuals  still  wearing  the 
quaint  livery  of  their  antiquated  ancestors.  Thus  do  we 
often  witness  the  remotest  past  united  to  the  pre^nt  by 
single  links;  and  thus  do  we  learn  the  identity  of  that  In- 
telligence whose  finger-marks  remain  upon  the  ruins  of 
past  geological  epochs,  and  whose  wisdom  and  benevo- 
lence have  beautified  the  landscapes  which  we  daily  ad- 
mire. 

But  water  has  not  been  the  only  purifier  of  the  materi- 
als of  the  solid  crust  of  the  earth.  I  spoke  of  "  pre-exist- 
ing rocks,"  from  which  the  pebble  had  been  broken  by  the 
violence  of  time.  These  have  been  purified  by  fire.  Every 
where  do  we  find  these  massive  crystalline  rocks  resting 
beneath  the  entire  series  of  those  which  have  been  accu- 
mulated in  the  form  of  sediments  from  water,  and  which 
have  buried  in  their  common  sepulchre  the  hordes  of 
earth's  pre-Adamite  existences.  These  foundation-granites 
are  bearing  upon  their  Atlantean  shoulders  the  weight  of 
twenty  miles  of  solid  strata.  They  contain  no  organic  re- 
mains. The  granites  of  this  class  exhibit  no  evidence  of 
having  been  produced  from  sediments.  They  bear  the 
marks  of  fire.  The  devouring  element  has  caused  their 
stubborn  sides  to  yield.  They  have  been  in  a  molten  con- 
dition.   You  may  take  a  fragment  and  fuse  it  in  a  furnace, 


THE  ORDEAL  BY  FIRE.  33 

and,  on  suffering  it  to  cool  under  circumstances  similar  to 
those  in  which  the  rock  has  been  placed,  it  resumes  its 
rock-like  aspect.  Marks  of  heat  are  all  about  these  gran- 
ites and  their  trappean  associates.  Wherever  they  have 
come  in  contact  with  rocks  of  sedimentary  origin,  the  lat- 
ter are  scorched  and  reddened.  In  many  cases  they  have 
been  actually  fused.  A  sandstone  has  been  converted  into 
quartz;  a  shale  into  a  micaceous,  semi-crystalline  bed;  a 
limestone  into  statuary  marble ;  and  all  the  vestiges  of  liv- 
ing forms  which  these  strata  inclosed  have  been  withered 
up  and  dissipated  by  the  touch  of  fire. 

These  underlying  crystalline  masses  are  not  confined  to 
the  deep-seated  regions  of  the  earth's  crust.  We  find  them 
thrusting  their  heads  up  through  the  ruptured  strata  which 
repose  upon  their  flanks.  Higher  even  than  the  highest 
summits  formed  by  the  stratified  rocks,  these  foundation 
masses  rear  their  bold  granite  heads.  From  these  cold, 
serene  altitudes  they  look  down  with  dignified  complacence 
upon  the  fury  of  the  tempest  which  brings  consternation 
to  the  landscape  below,  but  fails  to  ascend  to  those  frigid, 
breathless  summits  which  every  living  thing  has  equally 
failed  to  scale. 

Some  of  these  venerable  domes  were  reared  before  ever 
a  particle  of  sediment  had  been  produced,  or  even  the 
world-embracing  sea  had  descended  from  the  regions  of 
space  around  the  earth.  From  their  high  stations  they 
have  watched  the  procession  of  all  subsequent  events ;  and, 
while  race  after  race  has  appeared  and  disappeared,  they 
have  stood  calm  spectators,  unchanged  by  the  myriad  vi- 
cissitudes of  eternity.  Others  were  still  the  level  floor  of 
the  ocean  when  the  oldest  sediments  began  to  accumulate 
upon  them.  In  some  subsequent  age  a  mighty  force  has 
raised  them  with  their  load  of  sediments  above  the  level  of 
the  sea.     The  tempests  of  succeeding  ages  have  partially 

B  2 


34 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION 


stripped  them  of  their  sedimentary  coverings,  and  they 
stand  revealed  to  the  light  of  day.  In  other  cases  the  ten- 
sion of  the  upheaved  strata  has  caused  them  to  break  along 
the  crest  of  a  new-formed  ridge.  A  chasm,  miles  in  depth, 
has  opened  down  to  the  molten  rock  below.  The  fiery  sea 
has  risen  to  the  lips  of  the  fissure,  and  even  escaped  in  a 
consuming  and  terrific  overflow.  In  other  cases  such  an 
eruption  has  occurred  beneath  the  waters  of  the  sea,  and 
an  entire  oceanic  basin  has  been  converted  into  a  seething 
cauldron,  in  which  fish  and  oysters,  sea-urchins  and  lobsters, 
corallines  and  sea-weeds,  have  been  cooked  together  in  a 
Titanian  dish  of  soup.  Entire  races  have  thus  been  ex- 
terminated ;  and,  when  the  elements  subsided  again  to  a 
quiet  condition,  the  waters  have  been  repeopled  with  count- 
less multitudes  of  beings  exactly  adapted  to  the  changed 
circumstances  of  the  earth — not  repetitions  of  the  forms 
just  exterminated,  but  original  conceptions,  new  ideas  from 
the  infinite  resources  of  Nature ;  and  yet  not  fundamen- 
tally different,  but  united  to  the  old  by  such  an  identity  of 
fundamental  plan  as  to  convince  us  that  the  Intelligence 
which  presided  in  the  former  epoch  survived  the  catastro- 
phes which  brought  death  to  all  terrestrial  existence,  and 
continued  to  prosecute  his  unchanged  purposes  through 
succeeding  epochs. 


Fig.  10.  Fingal's  Cave  in  Slafia,  composed  of  basaltic  rocks  of  igneous  origin. 


THE  ORDEAL  BY  FIRE.  35 

Thus  fire  and  water,  in  their  ever-varying  operations, 
have  been  the  principal  agencies  by  which  Nature  has 
wrought  out  the  great  physical  results  upon  which  we 
gaze  with  a  familiarity  which  causes  us  to  forget  that  these 
safe  and  solid  foundations  on  which  we  build  cities,  and  to 
which  we  gain  a  title  with  hard-earned  gold,  are  but  the 
ruins  of  pre-existing  hills,  and  valleys,  and  plains,  in  which 
are  entombed  the  long-forgotten  relics  of  the  brute  nations 
which  preceded  us  in  the  possession  of  the  earth. 


36  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    SOLAR  SYSTEM   IN   A   BLAZE. 

HAVING  made  a  reconnoissance  of  the  vast  field  which 
lies  before  the  geological  observer,  let  us  ascertain 
what  degree  of  interest  may  be  derived  from  a  more  atten- 
tive survey.  The  ordeal  by  fire  stands  first  in  the  order 
of  time.  We  go  back,  then,  to  the  molten  period  of  the 
earth.  We  plunge  into  the  depths  of  the  past  eternity, 
and  behold  the  terrestrial  globe  glowing  with  a  fervent 
heat.  What  a  history  to  trace  from  that  point  of  time 
to  this  !  Continents  clothed  with  verdure,  and  diversified 
with  mountain,  hill,  and  dale — continents  spread  out  upon 
a  thousand  courses  of  solid  masonry — are  to  be  derived 
from  this  germinal,  incandescent  mass.  It  requires  an  un- 
usual effort  of  the  imagination  to  leap  from  the  scenes  of  a 
modern  landscape  to  an  adequate  conception  of  a  naked, 
tenantless,  and  molten  orb,  enveloped  in  an  atmosphere  of 
deadly  elements,  and  totally  unlike  the  present  earth  save 
in  its  spherical  form  and  its  yearly  journey  round  the  sun. 
To  the  eye  of  imagination,  the  forests  must  vanish  in 
smoke ;  the  "  cloud-capped  towers  and  gorgeous  palaces" 
of  man  must  crumble  to  clay,  and  sand,  and  loam ;  man 
and  all  living  things  must  desert  the  earth,  and  leave  it  in 
the  motionless  and  stagnant  silence  of  death ;  the  rivers 
must  dry  up  in  their  channels ;  the  ocean  must  change  to 
vapor,  and  flee  to  the  upper  limits  of  the  air ;  the  rock- 
ribbed  mountains  must  yield  to  the  melting  touch  of  fire ; 
and  the  rigid  crust  of  the  earth  must  dissolve  into  a  yield- 
in  gt  and  obedient  fluid. 


THE  SOLAR  S  YS TEM  IN  A  BLAZE.  37 

Can  we  place  ourselves  in  view  of  the  scenes  which  then 
existed?  Creation  is  in  its. incipient  stages.  The  long  line 
of  events,  which  is  to  end  in  the  installation  of  man  in  pos- 
session of  the  earth,  lies  before  us.  Methods  and  plans  are 
now  to  be  adopted  whose  carrying  out  is  to  be  extended 
into  the  distant  future,  and  which  shall  comprehend  and 
provide  for  the  endless  variety  of  exigencies  which  are  to 
grow  out  of  the  gradual  development  of  the  destined  order 
of  things.  How  inadequate  would  be  a  human  intelligence 
to  an  occasion  like  this  !  But  to  the  mind  of  the  Infinite 
Intelligence  the  whole  creation  already  existed,  and  not  a 
feature  of  the  original  plan  has  been  abandoned  in  the  long 
process  of  its  actualization. 

But  whence  the  state  of  things  which  we  are  proposing 
to  picture  ?  Was  this  the  "  beginning  ?"  In  truth,  we  are 
forced  to  admit  that  science  authorizes  us  to  predicate  a 
molten  condition  of  the  globe  as  the  consequent  of  a  va- 
porous one.  What  are  the  states  of  matter  but  the  pro- 
duct of  temperature  and  pressure  ?  We  style  the  liquid 
the  natural  state  of  water,  because  that  is  its  ordinary  con- 
dition under  our  own  eyes.  But  where  the  mean  temper- 
ature is  below  the  freezing-point,  the  solid  is  its  ordinary 
state ;  and  where  the  mean  temperature  rises  above  the 
boiling-point,  the  gaseous  is  its  ordinary  state.  To  men 
who  exist  (if  such  there  are)  where  the  climatic  tempera- 
ture never  rises  to  the  thawing-point,  water  is  known  only 
as  ice ;  it  is  quarried  as  a  rock ;  it  may  be  built  into  tem- 
ples, or  fortifications,  or  used  for  sidewalks.  Could  man 
exist,  on  the  contrary,  where  the  climatic  temperature 
never  falls  below  the  boiling-point  of  water,  this  substance 
would  only  be  known  as  a  gas,  like  hydrogen  or  carbonic 
acid.  There  are  regions  where  water,  and  even  mercury, 
maintain  the  permanent  condition  of  solids.  There  are  re- 
gions where  they  can  exist  only  as  vapor.     The  pressure 


38  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

remaining  constant,  the  form  of  these  bodies  depends  upon 
the  temperature.  Every  one  knows  that  the  same  is  true 
of  sulphur,  and  zinc,  and  several  other  substances.  Science 
has  succeeded  in  changing  the  form  of  numerous  bodies 
usually  regarded  as  extremely  refractory.  Copper,  gold, 
platinum,  and  the  other  metals  may  be  readily  fused.  The 
same  is  true  of  many  rocks  and  minerals.  On  the  other 
hand,  several  gases  have  been  liquefied,  and  some,  like  car- 
bonic acid,  have  even  been  reduced  to  the  solid  state.  It 
would  seem  that,  if  the  appliances  of  science  were  as  effect- 
ive as  those  which  we  know  that  Nature  wields,  every  rec- 
ognized substance  might  be  changed  at  pleasure  into  a 
solid,  a  liquid,  or  a  gas. 

What,  indeed,  are  we  to  learn  from  the  ejection  of  melt- 
ed rocks,  in  the  form  of  lava,  from  the  throats  of  volcanoes? 
Must  we  not  conclude  that  somewhere  within  is  a  reservoir 
in  which  all  things  are  melted  together  ? 

And  what  is  to  forbid  our  assuming  that  the  history  of 
matter  has  proceeded,  from  the  remotest  epoch  to  which  we 
can  climb,  by  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect?  What  hinders 
us  from  mounting  beyond  the  .molten  to  the  gaseous  state 
of  the  world  ?  We  will  do  it.  We  venture  to  gaze  upon 
a  world  glowing  as  an  immensity  of  flame.  Matter  it  must 
be,  but  matter  in  its  most  attenuated  condition.  Its  pre- 
eminent characteristic  is  luminosity.     It  is  primeval  light. 

But  the  history  of  this  terrestrial  vapor  involves  the  his- 
tory of  the  other  planets.  Geology  has  become  cosmogony. 
We  behold  the  matter  of  the  solar  system — sun,  planets, 
and  satellites — but  one  vast  ocean  of  ignited  materials, 
swung  by  Omnipotence  in  mid-space,  with  other  oceans  of 
flaming  matter  gleaming  on  it,  from  every  direction,  across 
the  cold  intervals  of  infinite  space.* 

*  A  period  anterior  to  any  definite  arrangement  of  the  materials  of  the 
earth  seems  to  be  mentioned  in  Gen.  i.,  1,  2:  "In  the  beginning  God 


THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM  IN  A  BLAZE.  39 


Fig.  11.  Comparative  volume  of  the  earth  in  the  gaseous  and  solid  state. 
A.  The  earth  in  its  present  condition.    B.  The  volume  of  the  earth  when  an  ig- 
neous vapor. 

We  dare  go  no  farther ;  we  can  go  no  farther.     If  sci- 
ence leads  us  here,  she  deserts  us  at  this  point,  and  leaves 

created  the  heaven  and  the  earth ;  and  the  earth  was  without  form,  and 
void."  These  interesting  utterances  will  be  further  considered  in  another 
work.  A  primordial  condition  of  things  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite 
conception  of  the  ancient  philosophers  and  poets.  What  a  consistent  pic- 
ture is  given  by  Ovid  in  the  "Metamorphoses:" 

"Ante,  mare  et  tellus,  et  quod  tegit  omnia  coelum, 

Unus  erat  toto  Naturae  vultus  in  orbe, 

Quern  dixere  chaos ;  rudis  indigestaque  moles ; 

Nee  quidquam,  nisi  pondus  iners;  congestaque  eodem 

Non  bene  junctarum  discordia  semina  rerum. 

Nullus  adhuc  mnndo  prsebebat  lumina  Titan ; 

Nee  nova  crescendo  reparabat  cornna  Phoebe; 

Nee  circumfnso  pendebat  in  aere  tellus 

Ponderibus  librata  suis ;  nee  brachia  longo 

Margine  terrarum  porrexerat  Amphitrite. 

Quaque  fuit  tellus,  illic  et  pontus  et  aer ; 

Sic  erat  instabilis  tellus,  innabilis  unda  ; 

Lucis  egens  aer;  nulli  sua  forma  manebat." 


40  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

us  to  lean  only  on  the  arm  of  Omnipotence.  Beyond  is 
only  God.  No  man  can  predicate  an  anterior  condition 
of  cosmical  matter.  This  condition  is  necessarily  primor- 
dial. As  matter  could  not  have  remained  in  such  a  condi- 
tion— as  it  did  not  remain  in  such  a  condition — the  career 
of  matter  must  have  had  a  commencement.  Its  evolutions 
are  not  from  eternity.  As  its  earliest  existence  involves 
an  evanescent  condition,  the  existence  of  matter  had  a  com- 
mencement. It  began  to  exist  only  when  it  began  to 
change.  Matter,  viewed  in  the  light  of  physical  laws 
alone,  can  not  be  pronounced  eternal.  Matter  is  the  ef- 
fect of  an  efficient  cause  whose  existence  is  antecedent  to 
matter.  As  philosophy  utters  this  verdict,  how  harmoni- 
ously rise  the  voices  of  the  soul,  declaring  in  the  face  of 
Atheism  that  nothing  exists  except  as  an  effect — demand- 
ing that  matter  itself  be  remanded  to  the  causation  of  a 
creator.  And  as  matter  proclaims  a  First  Cause,  having 
existence  in  itself,  as  the  first*  link  of  the  long  chain  of 
events,  so  the  soul  of  man  reveals  an  intuition  of  that'First 
Cause,  and  rests  satisfied  in  attributing  self-existence  to  a 
Supreme  Intelligence,  while  impelled  to  deny  it  to  every 
thing  else. 

The  beginning  of  this  history  does  not  stretch,  therefore, 
into  the  inscrutable  eternities.  We  discover  the  firm  Rock 
of  support  from  which  the  chain  of  existence  hangs.  It  is 
the  "  Rock  of  Ages."  We  feel'  comforted  and  strengthened 
in  knowing  that  "  in  the  beginning  God  created." 

We  assert,  then,  that  evidence  exists  that  the  solar  sys- 
tem came  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator  in  the  state  of  ig- 
neous vapor.  Nor  does  the  assertion  predicate  a  condition 
of  cosmical  matter  that  is  not,  even  to  this  day,  exemplified 
in  the  universe.  Is  not  the  sun  a  globe  of  fire-cloud,  with 
a  nucleus  of  molten  minerals?  And  does  not  the  spectro- 
scope declare  the  composition  of  the  sun  to  be  identical 


THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM  IN  A  BLAZE.  ±\ 

with  that  of  the  earth  ?  And  what  is  the  substance  of  the 
filmy  comet  that  sweeps  with  such  indecent  haste  through 
the  ranks  of  the  dignified  sisterhood  of  planets  ?  In  its 
dazzling  proximity  to  the  sun  at  perihelion,  it  can  only 
exist  as  a  fiery  vapor,  like  the  substance  it  seems  to  be. 
And  if  we  gaze  across  the  cold  and  starless  interval  which 
separates  our  firmament  of  stars  from  its  nearest  neighbors, 
there  we  may  witness  a  universe  in  its  formative  stage. 
There,  indeed,  are  firmaments  so  remote  that  the  eye  of 
the  telescope  is  strained  in  the  attempt  to  descry  the  com- 
ponent stars ;  but  nearer  to  our  domestic  earth  than  these 
are  the  materials  of  firmaments  which  remain  "rudis  indi- 
gestaque  moles" — the  "  semina  rerum" — the  primordial  ig- 
neous vapor  from  which  worlds  are  destined  to  be  formed 
in  some  far  distant  future  age — so  distant,  probably,  that 
the  career  of  terrestrial  things  will  first  have  closed,  and 
mankind  will  have  been  ushered  into  another  state  of 
being.  Here  are  specimen  creations,  postponed  to  our  age 
in  the  lapse  of  eternity,  to  illustrate  before  our  eyes  the 
infancy  of  the  firmament  which  is  garnished  by  the  nightly 
splendors  of  Sirius  and  Orion.  As  the  gar-pike  among  an- 
imal creations  has  been  perpetuated  to  our  day,  to  recite 
the  tale  of  his  noble  ancestry,  so  the  Pentacrinus  of  the 
Caribbean  still  lives  to  declare  the  history  of  pre-Adamite 
creatures,  whose  mausoleum  is  a  continent,  and  the  ruins 
of  whose  handiwork  have  risen  in  mountain  piles. 

In  our  attempt  to  depict  the  history  of  this  immensity 
of  flame,  we  draw  upon  the  splendid  deductions  of  Laplace, 
endorsed  by  the  genius  of  the  elder  Herschel,  and  first  fore- 
shadowed by  the  genius  of  Leibnitz  and  Kant.  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  that  the  radiation  of  heat,  which  is 
taking  place  from  the  earth  and  all  the  planets  as  well  as 
the  sun  himself  in  our  own  day,  is  a  process  which  began 
on  the  morning  of  the  creation  of  matter.     The  rapid  loss 


42  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

of  heat  which  the  cosmical  vapor  experienced  produced  a 
rapid  contraction  in  volume.  Every  particle  upon  the  pe- 
riphery and  through  the  interior  began  to  move  toward 
the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  mass.  It  is  barely  possible 
that  a  process  of  cooling  and  contraction  should  proceed 
in  such  a  mass  until  the  work  should  be  completed  and  no 
rotary  motion  be  generated.  Such  a  result  has,  however, 
in  the  existing  universe,  an  infinity  of  chances  against  it. 
There  were  always  other  masses  of  matter  within  our  fir- 
mament, and  others  far  beyond  its  limits,  which  exerted  an 
attraction  upon  the  mass  from  which  our  solar  system  was 
to  be  engendered.  If  Sirius,  and  Capella,  and  Vega,  and 
all  the  other  fixed  stars,  or  any  of  them,  be  suns  like  our 
own,  with  retinues  of  encircling  planets,  their  history  must 
be  analogous  to  that  of  our  own  system,  and  we  are  to  re- 
gard them  as  hanging  on  the  verge  of  the  firmament  when 
our  system  was  in  its  earliest  infancy.  Their  attractive 
influences  were  felt.  The  cosmical  vapor  which  might 
otherwise  have  been  perfectly  spherical  became  distorted 
in  its  form.  The  position  of  the  centre  of  gravity  was 
changed.  The  atoms,  in  their  progress  toward  the  centre 
of  gravity,  were  found  upon  lines  passing  to  one  side  of  the 
centre  of  gravity.  Each  began  to  exert  a  tangential  force. 
The  resultant  was  a  tangential  force.  It  was  as  if  a  power 
had  been  applied  at  the  surface  to  inaugurate  a  rotation  of 
the  mass.  A  rotation  once  inaugurated  in  a  shrinking 
globe  of  matter,  it  is  demonstrable  that  it  would  continue 
to  be  accelerated  as  long  as  the  mass  should  continue  to 
contract.  In  the  present  case  the  mass  assumed  the  form 
of  a  greatly  flattened  spheroid,  and  the  velocity  of  the  pe- 
ripheral portion  became  so  great  as  to  overcome  the  power 
of  gravity.  As  a  consequence,  the  peripheral  portion  be- 
came detached  in  the  form  of  a  ring — as  water  is  thrown 
from  a  rapidly  revolving  grindstone.     The  ring  continued 


44  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

its  rotation  about  the  mass  till  the  oscillations  to  which  it 
was  subjected  produced  a  rupture,  when  the.  whole  mate- 
rial of  the  ring  gathered  itself  together  in  another  globe  of 
igneous  vapor  revolving  around  the  first. 

In  progress  of  time  the  principal  mass,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  inevitable  refrigeration  and  acceleration  of  its  mo- 
tion, threw  off  another  ring,  which,  on  rupturing,  became 
another  revolving  globe.  From  time  to  time  the  process 
was  repeated ;  and  a  series  of  globes  was  thus  left  at  vary- 
ing distances  from  the  centre  of  the  system.  These  globes 
became  the  planets,  and  the  residual  mass  is  the  sun.  We 
come  into  existence,  and  gaze  upon  the  series  of  planets,  on 
one  hand,  and  the  sun  upon  the  other,  and  think,  because 
no  perceptible  change  transpires  in  a  generation  or  two, 
that  all  things  are  stable — that  creation  is  completed — that 
all  things  were  made  at  first  as  we  see  them,  and  are  des- 
tined so  to  remain.  Vain  thought !  The  movements  of 
matter  are  even  now  in  progress.  The  residual  mass — the 
sun — is  still  cooling  and  shrinking,  and  may  yet  throw  off 
other  rings,  the  germs  of  other  planets  within  the  orbit  of 
Mercury — if,  indeed,  Lescarbault  be  not  correct  in  assert- 
ing the  existence  already  of  an  intramercurial  planet. 

But  what  of  the  detached  globes  of  matter?  The  largest 
are  the  remoter,  being  formed  of  rings  detached  when  the 
parent  mass  was  largest.  Each  has  continued  to  revolve 
in  an  orbit  which  marks  the  periphery  of  the  parent  mass 
at  the  time  of  the  planet's  separation.  All  continue  to  re- 
volve in  the  same  direction  as  the  parent  mass  and  the  re- 
sultant sun.  All  revolve  very  nearly  in  the  plane  which 
must  always  have  been  the  plane  of  the  equator  of  the 
mass — the  astronomical  ecliptic.  All  continue  to  revolve 
upon  their  own  axes  in  the  same  direction  as  required  by 
the  motion  of  the  parent  mass.  Can  all  these  things  be  so 
by  chance  ?     Can  these  planetary  movements  thus  corre- 


THE  SOLAR  S  YS TEM  IX  A  BLAZE.  45 

sponcl,  and  the  material  constitution  of  all  th^se  bodies  be 
identical,  without  leaving  a  profound  conviction  upon  our 
minds  that  they  have  had  a  common  origin  and  a  common 
history  ?  Such  queries  were  raised  by  Leibnitz  and  Kant 
upon  slenderer  data  than  we  possess.  Does  not  the  hy- 
pothesis of  Laplace  rise  almost  to  a  demonstration  ? 

But  what,  again,  of  our  family  of  infant  planets  ?  Each 
sprang  forth  a  globe  of  igneous  vapor  like  their  common 
mother.  Each  began  to  repeat  the  process,  of  cooling,  con- 
densation, and  accelerated  rotation.  In  the  cases  of  the 
larger,  the  cooling  had  not  reached  the  point  of  liquefac- 
tion before  the  rotation  had  become  sufficiently  rapid  to 
detach  from  one  to  six  or  seven  rings,  which,  in  turn,  be- 
came satellites  revolving  about  their  planets.  The  larger 
planets  have  had  time  to  detach  the  greater  number  of 
rings.  Our  earth  threw  off  but  one,  and  became  too  rigid 
to  repeat  the  process.  Mars,  Venus,  and  Mercury — all 
smaller  than  the  earth — attained  the  rigid  condition  before 
their  acquired  velocity  had  separated  the  periphery.  Their 
nights  are  consequently  unillumined  by  the  presence  of  a 
moon.  Saturn  not  only  threw  off  seven  rings  which  be- 
came satellites,  but  another  also,  which  to  this  day  hangs 
poised  in  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium — as  if  the  hand 
of  Omnipotence  had  steadied  it,  and  arrested  it  in  its  ca- 
reer, to  hold  it  up  to  the  gaze  of  intelligent  creatures,  to 
reveal  to  them  the  nature  of  events  which  transpired  be- 
fore their  arrival  upon  the  theatre  of  existence.  And  this 
ring  is  said  to  be  a  liquid — a  discovery  for  which  we  are 
indebted  to  the  analysis  of  an  eminent  American  scholar, 
but  one  which  lends  still  farther  corroboration  to  our  view 
of  the  genesis  of  worlds.* 

We  have  then,  preserved  as  if  by  the  care  of  Providence, 

*  The  only  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  liquid  ring  is  not  self- 
luminous.     But  this  difficulty  is  not  insurmountable.     It  may  be  aqueous. 


46  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

existing  exemplifications  of  all  the  main  phenomena  which 
have  attended  upon  the  evolutions  of  cosmical  matter  from 
the  time  when  it  first  sprang  from  the  hands  of  its  Creator. 
The  cloud-like  comet ;  the  "  zodiacal  light ;"  the  solar-pho- 
tosphere ;  the  irresolvable  nebulae,  may  probably  be  re- 
garded as  .examples  of  attenuated  luminous  matter  such  as 
our  theory  hypothecates.  Every  whirlpool  shows  how  ro- 
tation is  liable  to  be  spontaneously  generated.  The  Satur- 
nian  ring  or  rings  illustrate  an  essential  phase  in  this  cos- 
mical genesis;  their  liquid  condition  another.  The  body 
of  the  sun  is  a  mass  remaining  in  the  incandescent  state ; 
while  the  planets  have  become  opaque,  because  smaller 
masses  of  matter  sooner  reach  the  point  of  total  refrigera- 
tion. The  moon  represents  a  state  of  refrigeration  whic*" 
the  earth  is  destined  to  attain  in  the  distant  future.  We 
may  thus  regard  the  visible  universe  as  a  vast  museum 
in  which  Nature  has  preserved  for  our  instruction  speci- 
mens illustrative  of  every  stage  in  the  embryology  of 
worlds. 

Will  it  be  asked  how  such  views  accord  with  our  theistic 
opinions  ?  I  reply,  perfectly.  It  has  become  a  kind  of 
fashion  in  certain  quarters  to  denounce  all  scientific  doc- 
trines to  which  the  much-abused  term  "  development"  can 
be  applied;  but  in  this  we  may  be  too  much  influenced 
by  "the  fashion."  Leading  theologians — though  indeed 
scarcely  followers  of  the  leaders  in  physical  science — have 
heaped  opprobrium  on  the  "nebular  hypothesis"  as  tending 
to  atheism.  The  patronage  of  this  hypothesis  by  the  au- 
thor of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation"  has  thrown  a  dark  sus- 
picion over  it;  but  the  cause  of  truth  will  be  best  promoted 
by  allowing  every  scientific  question  to  be  decided  on  its 
merits.  The  scientific  world  as  a  whole  will  never  abandon 
a  position  because  denounced  by  the  theological  world — 
not  even  because  it  seems  to  be  in  conflict  with  sound  the- 


THE  sbLAR  SYSTEM  IN  A  BLAZE.  47 

ological  doctrine.  Scientific  evidence  is  of  such  a  nature 
as  always  to  command  the  respect  and  the  assent  of  the 
bulk  of  reasoning  men.  If  this  hypothesis  is  sustained  by 
scientific  evidence,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  world  to 
embrace  it  and  convert  it  to  their  own  uses.  To  do  other- 
wise is  to  earn  the  contempt  of  those  who  are  really  on  the 
side  of  truth.  If  it  is  not  sustained  by  scientific  evidence, 
it  behooves  the  Christian  world  to  overthrow  it  from  sci- 
entific data.  Such  data  ought  not  to  be  monopolized  by 
secular  learning.  Science  belongs  peculiarly  to  Christian- 
ity, and  Christianity  is  in  duty  bound  to  assert  her  claim. 
If  she  can  use  science  to  overthrow  a  false  and  dangerous 
position,  she  is  derelict  to  neglect  the  opportunity ;  and  all 
her  denunciation  will  not  atone  for  the  error. 

But  this  hypothesis,  whether  it  represent  the  true  history 
of  cosmical  matter  or  not,  has  no  tendency  to  remove  the 
Deity  from  creation.  This  has  been  admitted  by  Whewell, 
Buchanan,  and  all  others  who  have  been  crowded  to  a 
response.  This  objection  is  founded  in  short-sightedness 
and  a  failure  to  appreciate  the  case.  The  hypothesis  sim- 
ply assumes  that  the  Creator  has  brought  worlds  into  exist- 
ence by  the  use  of  secondary  causes,  precisely  as  he  brings 
a  tree  into  existence.  Does  any  one  hesitate  to  admit  that 
an  oak  has  undergone  a  slow  and  regular  "  development" — 
or  that  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  is  undergoing  "  devel- 
opment"— or  that  the  cone  of  Vesuvius  is  undergoing  "de- 
velopment ?"  If  it  appear  to  intellects  of  the  loftiest  and 
broadest  grasp  that  the  Creator  has  evolved  the  solar  sys- 
tem according  to  a  method,  and  by  the  use  of  natural  laws, 
exactly  as  he  evolves  a  tree  from  the  germ  in  the  seed, 
why  do  we  charge  atheism  in  the  one  case  and  not  in  the 
other  ?  The  only  difference  between  the  cases  is  that  the 
one  attributes  to  Deity  a  vaster  scope  of  intelligence  and 
power  than  the  other — and  in  doing  this  it  concedes  to 


48  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

him  more   of  that  character  which  constitutes  him  God. 
In  short,  it  is  the  more  theistic  view  of  the  two. 

This  hypothesis  has  also  the  merit  of  dating  the  com- 
mencement of  the  evolutions  of  matter — which  to  some  ex- 
tent all  must  admit — back  to  the  very  point  beyond  which 
it  is  impossible  for  science  to  predicate  any  thing  except  to 
drop  the  universe  into  the  hands  of  a  First  Cause.  It 
places  science  in  the  position  where,  instead  of  suggesting 
a  query  or  doubt,  she  naturally,  and  inevitably,  and  cheer- 
fully pronounces  the  name  of  God. 


THE  REIGN  OF  FIRE.  49 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    REIGN    OF   FIKE. 

WHATEVER  may  be  thought  of  the  evidence  bearing 
upon  the  question  of  the  former  gaseous  condition 
of  our  world,  or  of  the  entire  solar  system,  it  is  generally 
admitted  that  the  evidence  of  former  igneous  fluidity  is 
somewhat  conclusive.  This  is  a  doctrine  which  we  may 
regard  as  resting  on  legitimate  geological  data.  This  is  a 
condition  of  the  world  we  may  proceed  to  contemplate 
without  serious  misgivings.  Our  earth  was  once  a  self- 
luminous  star. 

At  the  temperature  which  would  fuse  the  mass  of  the 
rocks,  all  the  more  volatile  substances  could  only  exist  in 
the  form  of  an  elastic  vapor  surrounding  the  earth.  All 
the  carbon  in  the  world  must  have  existed  in  the  form  of 
carbonic  acid ;  all  the  sulphur  as  sulphurous  acid ;  all  the 
chlorine  as  chlorhydric  acid ;  all  the  water  as  an  invisible 
elastic  vapor,  extending  out  beyond  the  limits  of  the  pres- 
ent atmosphere.  There  could  hence  be  upon  the  earth  no 
vegetation,  no  animals,  no  limestone,  no  salt,  no  gypsum, 
no  water.  All  that  we  now  behold  must  have  been  repre- 
sented by  a  glowing,  liquid  nucleus,  enveloped  in  a  dense 
atmosphere  of  burning  acrid  vapors.  This  orb,  by  the  im- 
mutable laws  of  physics,  must  have  revolved  upon  its  axis 
and  performed  its  revolutions  around  the  sun.  The  sun 
and  moon  (if  the  latter  existed)  must  have  raised  the  fiery 
ocean  to  a  tidal  wave  which  rolled  around  the  globe — the 
type  of  .an  action  which  has  continued  to  the  present  pe- 
riod.    There  were  also  day  and  night.     The  sun  rose  in 

C 


50  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  morning,  and  sent  a  lurid  ray  through  the  dense,  re- 
fractive atmosphere,  and  at  night  sank  into  the  smoke 
that  ascended  from  a  burning  world.  The  morning  and 
evening  twilight  almost  met  each  other  in  the  midnight 
zenith,  so  high  and  so  refractive  was  the  heterogeneous  at- 
mosphere. But  there  was  no  need  of  twilight.  An  ocean 
of  fire  sent  up  to  the  nocturnal  heavens  a  glare  that  was 
more  fearful  than  the  poisoned  ray  of  the  feebly-shining 
sun.  Here  was  chaos.  Here  was  the  death  and  silence 
of  the  primeval  ages,  when  the  Uncreated  alone  looked 
on,  and  saw  order,  and  beauty,  and  life  germinating  in  the 
heart  of  universal  discord. 

In  obedience  to  the  law  of  thermal  equilibrium — a  law 
which  undoubtedly  rose  into  being  with  the  birth  of  mat- 
ter— the  high  temperature  of  the  earth  gradually  subsided 
through  radiation  into  external  space.  A  crystallization 
of  the  least  fusible  elements  and  simple  compounds  event- 
ually took  place  in  the  superficial  portions  of  the  molten 
mass.  This  process  continued  till  a  crystalline  crust  had 
been  formed,  resting  upon  the  liquid  mass  which  still  con- 
stituted the  chief  bulk  of  the  globe. 

It  has  sometimes  been  objected  to  this  view  that  the 
solidified  materials  would  possess  superior  density,  and 
would,  accordingly,  sink  into  the  liquid  portions.  If  this 
were  so,  the  solidification  of  such  a  molten  mass  would 
either  commence  at  the  centre,  or  a  uniform  refrigeration 
would  proceed  till  the  whole  would  suddenly  be  consoli- 
dated. It  is  the  general  belief  that  the  central  portions 
of  the  earth  still  remain  in  a  molten  condition,  while  the 
habitable  exterior  is  but  a  comparatively  thin  crust.  [See 
Appendix,  Note  I.]  If  this  belief  is  well  founded,  the  first 
solidified  portions  did  not  descend  toward  the  centre. 
Moreover,  we  know  that,  in  the  case  of  water  and  several 
other  substances,  the  newly-solidified  parts  are  less  dense, 


THE  REIGN  OF  FIRE.  51 

and  float  upon  the  liquid  portions.  This  apparent  excep- 
tion to.  the  law  of  expansion  by  heat  is  accounted  for  by- 
supposing  that,  when  the  molecules  of  a  solidifying  fluid 
arrange  themselves  in  a  regular  crystalline  manner,  they 
inclose  certain  minute  spaces,  so  that  the  resulting  crystal 
is  a  little  more  bulky  than  the  unarranged  molecules  from 
which  it  was  constructed.  And  this  may  be  the  case,  eve^i 
though  a  cooler  temperature  has  caused  them  to  shrink 
into  closer  proximity  (for  they  are  never  in  contact)  than 
before  crystallization.  If  this  law  applies  to  the  refrigera- 
tion of  water,  type-metal,  iron,  and  other  substances,  we 
may  reasonably  infer  it  to  be  a  general  law  of  matter. 
"We  should  expect,  then,  that  crystals  of  quartz  would 
float  upon  molten  quartz,  or  solid  trap  upon  molten  trap, 
just  as  solid  iron  floats  upon  molten  iron,  or  solid  ice  upon 
molten  ice.  We  have,  therefore,  not  only  evidences  of  the 
fact  of  a  forming  crust,  but  also  a  probable  means  of  ac- 
counting for  it. 

We  may  conclude,  then,  that  a  solid  film  began  to  form 
over  the  surface  of  the  molten  sea.  But  the  earth  was 
even  then,  as  from  the  beginning,  obedient  to  the  law  of 
axial  rotation ;  and  the  sun  and  moon  reached  forth,  with 
their  attractive  influences,  to  solicit  the  mobile  rocks  into 
tidal  elevations.  As  the  wave  pursued  the  moon  around 
the  earth,  it  daily  ruptured  the  forming  film,  and  only  a 
wilderness  of  floating  fragments  remained,  strewn  over  the 
surface  of  the  fiery  abyss.  In  due  time,  however — let  us 
be  liberal  in  our  concessions  of  time — the  rocking  and  jos- 
tling fragments  became  permanently  frozen  together,  as 
the  broken  ice  of  Arctic  seas,  after  being  worried  by  winds 
and  currents,  seizes  an  interval  of  calm  to  consolidate  into 
a  vast  and  rugged  floe.  So  the  rock-floe  of  this  fiery  ocean 
formed,  at  length,  a  bridge  of  rough  and  sturdy  strength. 
It  was  a  mixed  conglomerate  of  crystalline  fragments,  such 


52  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

as  we*  now  witness  in  some  of  the  granites,  which  are  mix- 
tures of  quartz,  feldspar,  and  mica ;  or  the  syenites,  which 
are  mixtures  of  quartz,  feldspar,  and  hornblende ;  or  the 
diorites,  which  are  mostly  mixtures  of  feldspar  and  .horn- 
blende. Or,  perchance,  the  solidification  took  place  under 
such  circumstances  that  the  crystallization  was  more  ob- 
scure, as  in  the  various  dolerites,  which  every  one  admits 
to  have  been  born  of  fire.  We  say  that  the  process  of  re- 
frigeration must  have  resulted  in  such  rocks  as  these ;  and 
it  is  a  curious  and  instructive  fact,  that  when  we  turn  our 
attention  to  an  examination  of  the  oldest  rocks,  we  find 
granites,  and  syenites,  and  diorites,  and  dolerites  resting 
where  we  expected  them,  underneath  the  rocks  that  came 
into  being  after  water  existed  upon  the  earth,  spreading 
out  their  bases  in  every  direction,  and  constituting  the 
very  abutment  which  supports  the  lithological  pile.  We 
thus  trace  a  certain  succession  of  events  which  must"  occur 
in  accordance  with  the  established  laws  of  physics,  and  find 
the  series  of  sequents  confirmed  by  the  facts  of  the  rocks 
themselves.  Though  this  mode  of  reasoning  is  not  in  the 
spirit  of  modern  natural  science,  it  must  always  lead  us  to 
the  truth  if  we  reason  correctly.  Nevertheless,  it  is  sel- 
dom the  case  that  we  are  justified  in  the  attempt  to  predi- 
cate the  phenomena  from  the  laws  which  involve  them,  as 
long  as  it  is  our  privilege  to  confirm  the  laws  by  a  study 
of  the  phenomena.  In  the  present  instance,  the  history  of 
science  shows  that  the  laws  were  first  arrived  at  by  a  care- 
ful induction  from  facts ;  and  the  little  deductive  reasoning 
in  which  we  have  indulged  is  but  tracing  the  thread  a  lit- 
tle farther  back,  with  the  phenomenon  it  hangs  upon  all 
the  time  in  full  view. 

In  the  process  of  refrigeration  the  stiffening  crust  would 
become  too  large  for  the  nucleus  within.  This  would  nec- 
essarily result  from  the  more  rapid  contraction  of  the  more 


THE  It  EI  ON  OF  FIRE. 


53 


highly  heated  portions.  If  the  solid  and  the  molten  por- 
tions suffered  equal  losses  of  heat,  the  molten,  by  shrink- 
ing the  most,  became  too  small  for  the  enveloping  crust. 
The  crust,  there- 
fore, must  wrin- 
kle, to  fit  the 
shrinking  nucle- 
us. Thus  incip- 
ient inequalities 
of  the  surface  be- 
gan to  appear. 
These  were  the 
germs  of  moun- 
tains and  of  con- 
tinents. From  a 
new-born  wrinkle 
grew  the  lofty 
Cordillera. 

A  scene  of  ter- 
rific sublimity  ap- 
proaches. As  yet 
no  water  existed  upon  the  earth.  No  rain  had  fallen  upon 
the  parched  and  blackened  crust.  All  the  water  which 
now  fills  the  oceans,  and  the  rivers,  and  the  lakes — all 
which  saturates  the  atmosphere,  and  the  soil,  and  the 
rocks — rested  then  upon  the  earth  as  an  arid,  elastic,  in- 
visible vapor,  extending  an  unknown  distance  into  sur- 
rounding space.  This  vapor  was  not  cloudlike,  but  in- 
tensely hot  and  transparent.  It  was  a  gas,  like  the  steam 
just  issuing  from  the  escape-pipe  of  a  steam-boiler.  The 
time  had  now  arrived,  however,  when  the  remoter  regions 
to  which  this  aqueous  gas  extended  began  to  be  so  far  re- 
duced in  temperature  as  to  cause  condensation  to  begin — 
as  the  heated  steam,  rushing  from  the  locomotive,  soon 


cL 


Fig.  13.  Ideal  Section  of  the  Earth  in  primeval  times. 
a,  a,  a.  The  surface  when  solidification  first  commenced. 
6,  b,  b.  Wrinkles  developed  in  the  crust  by  the  shrink- 
age of  the  nucleus. 


54  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

cools  into  a  cloud  of  visible  mist.  An  intelligence  located 
upon  our  earth  at  this  epoch  would  have  seen  the  dusky 
atmosphere  begin  to  thicken.  In  the  far-off  regions,  wisps 
of  vapor  crept  along  the  sky,  as  cirrhi  in  our  day  foretoken 
the  gathering  storm.  They  grew,  and  thickened,  and  dark- 
ened till  a  pall  of  impending  clouds  enwrapped  the  earth, 
and  the  light  of  sun,  and  moon,  and  star  was  shut  out  for 
a  geological  age. 

Particle  drew  particle  to  itself,  and  rain-drops  began  to 
precipitate  themselves  through  the  lower  strata  of  the  fer- 
vid atmosphere.  In  their  descent  they  were  scorched  to 
evaporation,  as  the  meteor's  light  vanishes  in  mid-heaven. 
The  vapors,  hurrying  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  cloud,  were 
again  sent  forth,  again  to  be  consumed.  At  length  they 
reached  the  fervid  crust,  but  only  to  be  exploded  into  va- 
por and  driven  back  to  the  overburdened  cloud,  which  had 
an  ocean  to  transfer  to  the  earth.  The  clouds  poured  the 
ocean  continually  forth,  and  the  seething  crust  continually 
rejected  the  offering.  The  field  between  the  cloud  and 
the  earth  was  one  stupendous  scene  of  ebullition.* 

But  the  descent  of  rains  and  the  ascent  of  vapors  dis- 
turbed the  electricities  of  the  elements.  In  the  midst  of 
this  cosmical  contest  between  fire  and  water,  the  voices  of 
heaven's  artillery  were  heard.  Lightnings  darted  through 
the  Cimmerian  gloom,  and  world-convulsing  thunders  ech- 
oed through  the  universe. 

"  The  sky  is  changed !  and  such  a  change !     Oh,  night, 
And  storm  and  darkness !" 

*  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  Figuier's  interesting  works  will  note 
a  remarkable  correspondence  between  his  treatment  of  this  subject  and 
my  own.  It  is  but  justice,  therefore,  to  state  that  these  chapters  were 
drawn  up  long  before  the  work  of  Figuier  appeared.  This,  indeed,  has 
been  my  conception  of  these  primeval  scenes  since  1856 ;  and  it  was  in 
print  in  1857. 


56  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  VL 

OLD   OCEAN   COMMENCES   WORK. 

A  THOUSAND  years  of  storm  and  lightning  have 
passed,  and  the  primeval  tempest  is  drawing  to  a  close. 
The  waters  are  now  permitted  to  rest  upon  the  surface. 
By  degrees  the  clouds  are  exhausted,  and  sunlight  filters 
through  the  thinned  envelope.  As  the  morning  of  another 
geological  epoch  dawns,  it  reveals  the  change  of  scene. 
The  surface  which,  in  the  preceding  age,  was  scorched  and 
arid,  is  now  a  universal  sea  of  tepid  waters.  The  earliest 
ocean  enveloped  the  earth  on  every  hand.  A  few  isolated 
granite  summits  perhaps  protruded  above  the  watery 
waste.  Around  their  bases  careered  the  surges  which 
gnawed  at  their  foundations.  Geology  is  unable  to  aver 
that  any  of  them  survived  the  denudations  of  this  first  de- 
trital  period.  The  demands  of  nature  for  material  from 
which  to  lay  the  thick  and  massive  foundations  of  the 
stratified  pile  of  rocks  were  enormous,  and  it  is  probable 
that  whole  mountains  were  quarried  level  by  the  energies 
of  this  young,  fresh,  and  all-embracing  ocean.  Probably, 
however,  the  nuclei  of  some  of  our  oldest  mountain  masses, 
though  subsequently  elevated  to  their  present  altitudes, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  remnants  of  the  granite  knobs 
that  reared  their  frowning  and  angular  visages  above  the 
primordial  deep.  If  so,  the  erosion  of  the  waves  and  the 
battering  of  the  tempests  have  given  to  their  sides  and 
heads  a  smooth  and  bald  rotundity.  But  most,  if  not  all 
of  the  original  pinnacles  of  the  earth's  crust  have  been  lev- 
eled to  the  water's  surface  and  spread  over  the  floor  of  the 


OLD   OCEAN  COMMENCES   WORK.  57 

sea.  To-day  we  may  gather  up  the  fragments,  not  from 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  but  raised  again  mountain  high,  or 
incorporated  into  the  fabric  of  new-built  continents !  Sub- 
lime ruins  !  What  are  the  marbles  of  Mneveh,  or  the  col- 
umns of  the  Parthenon,  in  comparison  with  these  hoary 
relics  of  Nature's  primeval  structures  ? 

I  said  that  the  fury  of  the  waves  strewed  the  ocean's  bed 
with  the  ruins  of  these  ancient  islands.  This  is  no  fancy. 
The  demonstration  is  before  our  eyes.  The  floor  of  the  sea 
was  first  formed  of  rocks  that  had  cooled  from  a  state  of 
fusion.  The  few  islands  that  existed  were  but  e^osed 
portions  of  this  floor.  The  debris  scattered  over  this  foun- 
dation would  be  arranged  in  layers,  as  water  always  ar- 
ranges its  sediments.  The  coarser  materials  would  be 
transported  by  the  more  powerful  action  and  deposited  in 
one  place ;  the  finer  materials  would  be  carried  beyond  by 


r 


Fig.  15.  Shore  Erosion  and  Distribution  of  Sediments. 
a,  a.  The  primordial  igneous  crust,    b.  A  sea-side  cliff  gnawed  by  the  waves,    c. 
The  ordinary  sea-level,    d.  The  ruins  of  the  cliff— the  coarser  deposited  near 
the  shore,  and  the  finer  floated  to  greater  depths. 

the  feebler  agency,  and  deposited  in  a  remoter  region. 
Thus  some  of  the  first-formed  strata  would  be  finer  and 
others  would  be  coarser ;  but  all  must  be  composed  of  ma- 
terials derived  from  the  pre-existing  rocks.  This  deduction 
is  again  corroborated  by  well-known  facts.  Every  where 
do  we  find  reposing  upon  the  ancient  igneous  floor  a  bed 
of  stratified  materials  composed  of  the  same  constituent 

C2 


58  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

minerals  as  the  rocks  they  rest  upon.  For  instance,  granite 
is  very  commonly  the  foundation  rock;  but  immediately 
upon  this  repose  thick  beds  of  gneissoid  rocks.  Now 
gneiss,  like  granite,  is  composed  of  quartz,  feldspar,  and 
mica,  and  differs  only  in  this — that  the  constituents  have 
been  broken  up,  assorted  by  water,  and  redepositecl  in  reg- 
ular layers.  As  we  have  different  varieties  of  granitoid 
rocks,  so  we  have  corresponding  varieties  of  gneissoid 
rocks,  differing  from  the  former  only  in  being  stratified. 
So  general  and  so  well  recognized  is  this  phenomenon,  that 
Sir  Ubderick  I.  Murchison,  an  eminent  geological  author- 
ity, designates  these  lower  strata  beds  of  "  fundamental 
gneiss."  This  occurrence  of  gneiss,  every  where  repos- 
ing upon  granite,  is  a  most  interesting  and  instructive 
fact,  and  confirms  all  that  I  have  said  of  the  denudation 
of  the  primitive  islands,  and  the  universality  of  the  primi- 
tive sea. 

But,  though  gneiss  is  generally  the  foundation  stratum, 
we  find  abundance  of  other  rocks  either  reposing  upon  the 
gneiss,  or  interstratified  with  it  in  the  lower  portions  of  the 
sedimentary  series.  Undoubtedly  some  of  these  have  re- 
sulted from  the  impalpable  powder  to  which  long-contin- 
ued attrition  reduced  some  portions  of  the  primitive  gran- 
ite, transported  to  the  remotest  and  quietest  portions  of 
the  ocean,  and  there  allowed  to  subside.  But  we  know 
also  that  others  of  the  oldest  strata  associated  with  the 
gneisses  have  been  the  results  of  chemical  agencies.  This 
is  one  of  the  revelations  of  modern  chemical  geology,  which 
no  name  has  more  adorned  than  that  of  Dr.  T.  Sterry  Hunt, 
of  the  Geological  Commission  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 
According  to  Hunt  and  Logan,  the  limestones  of  this  early 
period  could  have  had  no  other  than  a  chemical  origin. 
Common  limestone  is  composed,  as  every  one  knows,  of 
carbonic  acid  and  lime.     Heat,  as  the  manufacturer  of  lime 


OLD   OCEAN  COMMENCES  WORK.  59 

illustrates,  expels  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  form  of  a  gas. 
Under  the  high  temperatures  of  the  earliest  periods,  there- 
fore, limestone  could  not  exist.  It  has  already  been  stated 
that  all  the  carbon,  sulphur,  and  chlorine  in  existence  must, 
in  those  periods,  have  been  represented  by  carbonic  (CO2), 
sulphuric  (SO3),  and  chlorhydric  (HC1)  acids,  existing  in  a 
volatile  state,  mingled  with  the  other  gaseous  constituents 
of  the  atmosphere.  At  the  same  time,  all  the  silica  of  the 
globe,  playing  the  part  of  an  acid,  would  unite  with  the 
fixed  elements,  producing  silicates  of  complex  constitution 
— just  such  silicates  as  we  actually  find  entering  into  the 
structure  of  the  oldest  portions  of  the  earth's  crust.  The 
first  rains  which  descended  would  be  charged  with  the  at- 
mospheric acids  just  mentioned,  which,  attacking  the  solid 
silicates  at  a  high  temperature,  would,  as  the  analytical 
chemist  knows,  produce  reactions  resulting  in  the  chlorids 
of  calcium  (CICa),  magnesium  (ClMg),and  sodium  (ClNa), 
mingled  with  the  sulphates  of  these  bases  (S03KO, 
S03NaO,  S03CaO,  S03MgO).  The  liberated  silica  (Si203) 
w^ould  separate,  and  would  be  chemically  precipitated  dur- 
ing the  subsequent  cooling  of  the  waters,  and  would  thus 
give  rise  to  the  enormous  beds  of  quartz  which  we  actually 
find  among  the  very  oldest  strata,  but  nowhere  else. 

Among  the  other  silicates  originally  formed  is  a  family 
of  minerals  known  as  feldspars — very  abundant,  and  con- 
taining, besides  alumina,  large  percentages  of  either  potash, 
soda,  lime,  or  lithia,  or  two  of  these  alkalies  together.  The 
decomposition  of  these  feldspars — especially  orthoclase,  or 
potash-feldspar  (Si203Al203KO) — must  have  taken  place  on 
an  extensive  scale.  The  result  would  be  a  clayey  hydrate, 
called  kaolin  (Si203Al203)  when  pure,  which  became  the 
basis  of  many  clays  and  other  argillaceous  rocks  like  graph- 
ic and  roofing  slates.  The  remainder  of  the  orthoclase 
would  be  in  the  form  of  silicates  of  potash  (Si203KO)  and 


60  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

soda,  which  would  remain  in  solution  in  the  sea.  But  the 
carbonic  acid  of  the  atmosphere,  having  a  more  powerful 
affinity  for  these  alkalies  than  the  silica,  would  wrest  them 
from  combination  with  the  silica,  as  already  stated,  and 
would  form  carbonates  of  potash  (C02KO)  and  soda 
(C02NaO),  while  the  silica  would  be  added  to  the  quartz- 
ose  rocks  of  the  globe.  These  carbonates,  whether  formed 
in  the  ocean  or  on  the  hill-sides,  would,  when  transported 
to  the  ocean,  find  themselves  confronted  with  chlorid  of 
calcium  (CICa),  and  probably  other  chlorids.  Chlorid  of 
calcium,  carbonate  of  potash  (C02KO),  and  carbonate  of 
soda  (C02NaO),  brought  face  to  face,  would  immediately 
enter  into  arrangements  for  an  exchange  of  partners.  Car- 
bonic acid  (CO2)  would  incontinently  abandon  potash  (KO) 
and  soda  (NaO),  and  betake  itself  to  calcium  (Ca),  changing 
its  name,  by  the  aid  of  a  little  oxygen,  to  "  lime"  (CaO), 
and  forming  a  union  known  as  carbonate  of  lime  (C02CaO). 
With  equal  celerity,  chlorine  (CI),  dispossessed  of  its  cal- 
cium (Ca),  would  compensate  itself  by  seizing  upon  potash 
(KO)  and  soda  (NaO),  and,  after  eliminating  the  oxygen 
(O)  in  their  constitution,  would  unite  with  potassium  and 
sodium,  forming  chlorid  of  potassium  (C1K)  and  chlorid 
of  sodium  (CINa).  Thus  all  parties  would  be  better  satis- 
fied, and  each  would  abide  in  its  appropriate  place.  Car- 
bonate of  lime  (C02CaO)  refusing,  for  the  greater  part,  to 
be  dissolved  in  sea-water,  would  settle  to  the  bottom  and 
become  limestone  ;  while  chlorid  of  sodium  (ClNa): — which 
is  only  the  chemist's  name  for  "  common  salt" — remained 
in  solution,  and  thus  gave  its  characteristic  salinity  to  the 
sea.  Chlorid  of  potassium  (C1K)  also  continues  to  exist  in 
sea-water  in  smaller  quantity. 

The  diagram  on  the  following  page  is  intended  to  repre- 
sent to  the  eye  the  chemical  reactions  above  described. 
The  symbols  are  familiar  to  the  chemical  reader ;  but  they 


62  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

will  be  rendered  intelligible  to  all  by  the  explanations  in 
the  text. 

There  seems  to  be  but  little  poetry  in  the  attempt  to  un- 
ravel the  thread  of  chemical  reactions  which  followed  each 
other  upon  the  earth  in  those  dim  and  twilight  ages ;  but 
it  is  certainly  an  inspiring  development  of  late  researches 
that  the  sceptre  which  chemistry  sways  over  the  modern 
world  is  the  same  which  she  wielded  over  the  mute  atoms 
of  the  forming  crust. 

It  appears,  from  what  has  been  suggested,  that  a  portion 
of  those  ancient  strata  originated  from  sediments  mechan- 
ically deposited,  and  another  portion  from  chemical  precip- 
itates thrown  down  while  the  elements  were  adjusting 
themselves  according  to  their  strongest  affinities. 

The  reader  should  not  imagine  that  the  proofs  of  these 
things  are  afar  off.  They  lie  within  the  scope  of  his  own 
observation  and  verification.  If  you  can  *not  gaze  upon 
the  frowning  summit  of  Katahdin,  or  the  dark  and  lichen- 
covered  sides  of  the  Adirondacs,  nor  the  upturned  piles  of 
stony  lumber  which  make  the  ridges  of  the  Appalachians, 
nor  the  acres  of  rocky  floor  torn  up  for  your  inspection 
along  the  shores  of  the  upper  lakes,  examine  some  of  the 
specimens  which  Nature  has  brought  from  those  northern 
regions  to  your  very  doors.  Scattered  over  your  fields 
may  be  found  fragments  of  the  underlying  unstratified 
granite  and  sienite,  diorite  and  dolerite.  Here,  too,  are 
fragments  of  rocks  formed  of  the  same  constituents  as 
these,  but  under  a  stratified  arrangement.  The  most 
striking  of  these  are  the  gneisses,  where  the  various  col- 
ored minerals  set  forth  the  stratification  with  distinctness. 
These  came  from  the  thick  beds  resting  upon  the  crystal- 
line foundation  of  the  earth's  crust.  They  are  the  ruins — 
a  second  time  ruined — of  some  ancient  rocky  shore  which 
the  fury  of  the  elements  has  reduced  to  sand.     Here  are 


OLD    OCEAN  COMMENCES   WORK. 


63 


boulders  of  quartz,  liberated  from  its  ancient  combina- 
tions and  precipitated  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Here  are 
boulders  of  sandstone — vitreous,  half-fused  sandstone — 
better  known  as  "  hard-heads,"  which  consist  of  grains  of 
quartz  produced  by  the  grinding  up  of  some  more  ancient 
quartz  rock.  These  grains  have  been  again  cemented  to- 
gether, and  a  convulsion  of  Nature  has  sent  them  a  second 
time  vagrants  over  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Here,  too,  are 
fragments  of  those  ancient  marbles,  precipitated  at  the  time 
when  the  partners  of  the  ancient  chlorides  and  carbonates 
formed  new  copartnerships  for  life.  These  all,  rounded 
and  battered  by  long  travel,  have  come  from  their  ancient 
homes  in  those  northern  regions  where  our  continent  first 
raised  its  head  to  scowl  defiance  at  the  supremacy  of  tem- 
pest and  flood.  They  constitute,  with  numberless  speci- 
mens of  rocks  of  every  other  age,  a  grand  museum,  where 
every  student  of  Nature  may  roam  and  study  at  his  pleas- 
ure. 

The  chemical  reactions,  and  precipitations,  and  sediment- 
ary accumulations  to  which  I  have  referred  extended  over 
an  immense  interval  of  time.  During  this  long  period  ma- 
terials accumulated  at  the  bottom  of 'the  sea  to  the  thick- 
ness of  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  feet.  Their  geo- 
graphical extent  corresponded  with  that  of  the  primeval 
sea.  We  find  these  rocks  on  every  side  of  the  globe,  per- 
forated here  and  there  by  the  original  granitic  summits, 
which  serve  to  point  out  to  us  the  sites  of  the  oldest  isl- 
ands. For  our  knowledge  of  the  vast  thickness  of  these 
older  strata,  their  composition,  and  their  wide  American 
distribution,  we  are  indebted  to  Sir  William  Logan  and 
his  associates  of  the  Geological  Commission  of  Canada. 
Sir  William  has  ascertained  that  this  stupendous  pile  of 
strata  is  properly  divisible  into  two  great  systems,  the 
lower  of  which  he  styles  the  "  Laurentian,"  from  the  great 


64  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

river  along  whose  valley  they  have  been  studied,  while  the 
upper  is  denominated  the  "  Huronian,"  from  the  lake  upon 
whose  northern  shores  the  upper  members  of  the  series  are 
so  finely  exposed.  The  iron-bearing  rocks  of  the  northern 
peninsula  of  Michigan  belong  to  the  Huronian  system,  as 
well  as  those  of  Southeastern  Missouri  and  Northern  New 
York. 


A  BAY  OF  LIFE.  65 


CHAPTER  VIL 

A    KAY     OF    LIFE. 

TOURING  the  progress  of  that  primeval  age  which  wit- 
•*^  nessed  the  war  of  elements  that  I  have  already- 
sketched,  there  was  little  opportunity  for  the  unfolding 
of  organic  existence.  The  atmosphere  was  unfit  for  respi- 
ration ;  and  the  waters,  if  not  too  highly  heated,  were  nev- 
ertheless charged  with  impurities  destructive  to  both  veg- 
etable and  animal  life.  It  was  a  dreary  and  monotonous 
age,  with  nothing  of  that  which  now  beautifies  and  diver- 
sifies the  face  of  nature.  The  same  sunlight  fell  upon  the 
heaving  waters  of  that  tenantless  and  gloomy  sea,  and  the 
same  tide-wave  performed  its  everlasting  circuit  round  the 
globe.  There  was  little  diversity  of  weather  or  climate. 
The  continents  and  mountain  ridges,  which  give  birth  to 
oceanic  and  atmospheric  currents,  had  not  yet  appeared 
above  the  wave.  But  there  must  have  been  a  succession 
of  seasons.  The  winter's  sun,  as  now,  went  early  to  his 
couch,  and  his  tardy  rising  belated  the  December  morn- 
ings. His  unequal  favors  to  the  different  latitudes  neces- 
sitated the  trade  winds  and  the  great  equalizing  currents 
of  the  ocean.  The  higher  density  of  the  primeval  atmos- 
phere rendered  it  more  retentive  of  the  solar  heat,  and 
thus  contributed  greatly  to  diminish  the  rate  of  terrestrial 
cooling  by  radiation  into  space.  Evaporation  proceeded 
at  a  rapid  rate,  and  condensation  and  precipitation  were 
correspondingly  copious.  It  was  probably  a  stormy  pe- 
riod, like  the  showery  season  which  succeeds  the  protract- 
ed storm  of  the  vernal  equinox. 


66  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

It  would  seem  almost  inevitable  that  the  temperature 
and  constitution  of  the  primeval  sea  should  be  incompati- 
ble equally  with  vegetable  and  animal  life.  It  is  true  that 
both  plants  and  animals  are  now  known  to  flourish  under 
conditions  of  heat  and  cold,  and  chemistry,  which  are  en- 
tirely at  variance  with  the  general  notions  of  organic 
adaptability.  Certain  plants,  for  instance,  are  reported  as 
flourishing  in  the  boiling  geysers  of  Iceland  and  the  hot 
springs  of  California.  Others  make  their  habitat  upon  the 
snows  of  Greenland,  and  impart  the  ruddy  glow  of  warmth 
even  in  the  undisputed  empire  of  frost.  The  germs  of  veg- 
etable, and  even  of  animal  life,  populate  every  element  and 
every  locality ;  and  only  a  temperature  of  some  hundreds 
of  degrees  suffices  to  rid  a  fluid  exposed  to  the  air  of  all 
the  vitalized  germs  that  inhabit  it.  The  egg  of  an  insect, 
stuck  in  the  crevice  of  the  bark  of  an  apple-tree,  endures 
the  rigors  of  a  Canadian  winter ;  and  the  organized  chrys- 
alis seems,  in  many  cases,  to  possess  equal  powers  of  re- 
sisting cold.  It  is  unsafe,  then,  to  attempt  to  determine 
at  what  epoch  the  waters  of  the  primeval  sea  became  suf- 
ficiently cooled  and  purified  to  receive  the  first  organic 
forms.  There  was,  in  all  probability,  an  earliest  epoch 
that  was  completely  destitute  of  organic  forms.  But,  to 
ascertain  its  beginning  and  its  end,  Geology  must  yet  ap- 
ply herself  to  a  closer  study  of  the  monuments  of  the 
gneissic  age. 

Reasoning  deductively,  it  is  equally  presumable  that 
vegetable  life  preceded  animal  life  in  order  of  appearance. 
Vegetable  life  is  capable  of  enduring  more  extreme  condi- 
tions. Vegetation  could  better  tolerate  the  excess  of  car- 
bonic acid  in  the  atmosphere  and  the  waters.  Vegetation, 
moreover,  is  capable  of  drawing  its  sustenance  from  the 
mineral  world,  while  animals  rely  exclusively  upon  organ- 
ic food.     The  vegetable  stands  between  the  animal  and 


A    MAT  OF  LIFE.  67 

the  mineral,  performing  a  sort  of  commissary  function  in 
behalf  of  the  animal.  The  animal — even  the  carnivorous 
animal — implies  the  vegetable — requires  the  vegetable 
All  things  considered,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  plant  life 
had  a  history  upon  our  earth  a  full  epoch  before  the  exist- 
ence of  the  lowest  animals.  There  must  have  been  a  real 
Azoic  Age.  This  deductive  conclusion  receives  some  sup- 
port from  inductive  data.  Petroleum,  when  existing  in  a 
state  of  wide  or  general  distribution  through  a  formation, 
is  found  to  be  traceable  to  vegetable  organisms,  generally 
marine  plants,  that  have  been  reduced  to  a  pulp  and  min- 
gled with  argillaceous  mud  before  deposition.  Petroleum 
is  thus  found  in  every  formation,  from  the  very  latest  down 
to  the  primeval  gneiss.  The  actual  presence  of  petroleum 
in  gneissic  strata  affords  a  material  prop  to  the  doctrine 
of  prsezoic  vegetation — a  doctrine  of  no  inconsiderable  im- 
portance in  establishing  the  harmony  of  the  Mosaic  and 
geologic  records. 

But  a  few  months  since  geologists  were  equally  ignorant 
of  the  existence  of  vegetable  and  animal  remains  through 
the  entire  series  ofLaurentian  andHuronian  strata,  unless, 
perchance,  the  so-called  "Cambrian"  rocks  of  the  Old  World 
be  of  the  same  age  as  the  Huronian — a  conclusion  which 
the  eminent  geologist,  Dr.  Bigsby,  disinclines  to  accept. 
Geologists,  it  is  true,  drew  the  same  inferences  as  now 
from  the  same  data  in  reference  to  the  existence  of  vege- 
tal organization ;  but  no  actual  or  recognizable  remains 
had  been  found,  nor  have  they  to  this  day.  Greatly  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  whole  geological  world,  however, 
the  abundant  remains  of  animals  have  been  discovered  in 
strata  which  long  antedate  the  most  ancient  in  which  a 
vegetable  form  has  been  descried.  It  was  not  by  any 
means  a  rich  fauna,  but  a  single  species,  which  populated 
the  sea  even  in  the  Laurentian  period.     The  faint  tracery 


A  HAY  OF  LIFE.  69 

of  its  structure  can  be  deciphered  in  thin,  polished  sections 
of  Laurentian  limestones  and  serpentines,  when  carefully 
examined  under  the  microscope.  These  beings  have  been 
entombed  in  Canadian  soil,  and  we  have  again  to  thank 
the  energy  and  ability  of  the  Canadian  geologists  for  this 
modern  revelation.  The  microscopic  examinations  have 
been  chiefly  made  by  Dr.  Dawson,  of  Montreal,  and  have 
been  fully  corroborated  by  Dr.  Carpenter,  of  London,  En- 
gland. 

As  might  be  expected,  this  being  belongs  in  the  very 
lowest  rank  of  God's  creatures.  It  is  classed  with  the  Fo- 
raminifera,  in  the  group  of  Protozoa.  It  was  related  to  the 
nummulite,  whose  skeletons  have  contributed  so  largely 
to  the  material  of  the  Pyramids — monuments  which  per- 
petuate the  memory  equally  of  nummulites  and  Egyptian 
monarchs.  It  was  related,  also,  to  the  little  disc-like  forms 
called  Orbitoides,  so  abundant  in  the  white  limestone  of 
the  southern  portion  of  the  "  Gulf  States."  Indeed,  the  kin- 
dred of  this  primeval  forerunner  of  animal  forms  have  been 
permitted  to  maintain  existence  in  all  seas,  and  in  all  ages, 
down  to  the  present  day.  The  type  came  upon  the  earth 
when  nothing  could  dispute  its  pre-eminence.  It  has 
claimed  a  place  among  the  ranks  of  higher  animals  in  the 
ascending  series,  and  does  not  shrink  even  from  the  face 
of  man.  Nay,  the  type  maintains  a  foothold  in  the  stag- 
nant pools  that  gather  upon  the  surface  of  the  land,  where 
man  asserts  peculiar  supremacy.  It  demands  our  rever- 
ence for  its  antiquity.     Let  us  pay  it  our  respects. 

Gazing  through  the  microscope  into  a  drop  of  water 
from  some  standing  pool,  our  attention  would  scarcely  be 
arrested  by  the  sight  of  a  little  shapeless  lump,  which  is  as 
soft,  and  jelly-like,  and  inanimate,  to  all  appearance,  as  any 
thing  can  be.  But  this  is  our  Protozoan.  It  may  be  the 
species  upon  which  science  has  imposed  the  name  Amoeba 


70 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


princeps,  preserving  the  same  gravity  at  the  christening 
as  if  she  had  been  naming  a  gorilla  or  a  human  animal,  so 
impartial  is  science.  We  continue  to  gaze  at  our  Amoeba, 
and  presently  a  little  filament  is  extended  like  an  arm, 
and  perhaps  immediately  withdrawn.  Soon  a  similar  arm 
stretches  forth  in  another  position,  and  then  another.  Per- 
haps half  a  dozen  arms  extend  themselves  at  once  from  dif- 


Fig.  18.  Amoeba  Priuceps,  in  different  forms. 

ferent  sides,  some  long,  some  short,  some  thick,  some  thin. 
They  shorten  themselves,  or  entirely  disappear,  according 
to  some  inexplicable  caprice.  Now  we  discover  the  object 
of  their  movements.  They  are  feeling  for  food ;  the  Amoe- 
ba is  in  search  of  his  breakfast.  As  soon  as  a  nutritive 
particle  is  touched,  it  is  seized  by  one  of  these  arms  and 
introduced  into  the — mouth,  do  you  say?  No,  indeed; 
the  animal  has  no  mouth.  The  food,  however,  gets  inside 
by  some  means,  and  you  may  behold  it  there.  It  lies  im- 
bedded in  the  midst  of  the  little  lump  of  jelly.     There  is 


A  BAY  OF  LIFE.  fl 

uo  stomach,  no  liver,  no  heart,  no  breathing  organ,  no  head, 
no  feet — in  short,  this  animal  is  destitute  of  organs,  except 
as  it  employs  the  whole  body  for  every  purpose.  When- 
ever it  seizes  its  food  it  extemporizes  an  arm  for  the  work. 
Whenever  it  eats  it  must  extemporize  a  mouth.  When- 
ever it  digests  it  must  extemporize  a  stomach.  It  seizes, 
it  eats,  it  digests,  it  breathes  with  the  whole  body.  There 
are  few  animals,  indeed,  so  utterly  destitute  of  differentia- 
tion of  the  parts  of  the  body.  There  is  not  the  least  divis- 
ion of  labor.  It  symbolizes  primeval  society,  in  which  every 
man  does  every  thing  that  is  done  in  the  community. 

Our  Lauren tian  protozoan  was  as  poorly  furnished  and 
as  badly  organized  a  being  as  this.  But  he  possessed 
great  advantages  in  point  of  size,  and  was,  moreover,  fur- 
nished with  a  stony  armor — a  wise  provision,  as  one  would 
think,  for  a  creature  that  must  buffet  the  storms  which  pul- 
verized mountains,  and  defy  the  chemistry  that  dissolved 
granite.  It  only  remains  to  effect  the  formal  introduction 
to  the  reader.  His  name  is  Eozoon  Ganadense.  [See  Ap- 
pendix, Note  II.] 

I  said  that  the  burial-place  of  this  most  venerable  deni- 
zen of  our  planet  was  among  the  Laurentian  rocks  of  Can- 
ada. Strange  as  it  may  appear,  no  vestige  of  animal  or- 
ganization has  as  yet  been  found  among  the  overlying  Hu- 
ronian  strata.  It  can  not  be  doubted  that  life  still  contin- 
ued upon  the  earth.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  the  most 
ancient  forms  of  the  Old  World  flourished  during  this  age. 
Indeed,  they  herald  the  name  of  an  Eozoon  from  Bohemia, 
and  still  another  from  the  Emerald  Isle.  It  seems  certain 
that  the  latter  had  no  contemporary  and  no  rival  for  su- 
premacy. He  certainly  was  the  first  of  the  Fenians.  But 
in  America,  so  far  as  actual  discovery  goes,  life  touched 
the  earth  at  a  single  point,  and  vanished  again  from  view. 
This  dawn  of  animal  life  was  like  the  first  gleam  of  sun- 


72  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

light  that  stole  through  a  rift  in  the  clouds  of  the  primeval 
tempest,  destined  to  be  closed  out  again  for  a  geologic  age. 

This  enormous  interval  of  time,  down  to  the  close  of  the 
Huronian,  relieved  of  its  absolute  sterility  of  life  by  only 
a  single  species  certainly  known,  we  designate  as  Eozoic 
Time. 

"The  curtain  falls,  and  the  scene  is  changed."  The 
crust,  now  becoming  too  large  for  the  ever-shrinking  nu- 
cleus, settles  down  to  a  closer  fitting  around  it.  The  en- 
velope, of  course,  must  wrinkle,  and  the  wrinkles  must  pro- 
trude their  ridges,  in  some  cases,  above  the  waters.  The 
horizontality  of  the  primeval  strata  is  thus  broken.  In 
some  instances  they  are  burst  asunder,  and  the  molten 
granite  is  poured  out  through  the  fissure.  In  other  cases 
a  huge  back  is  simply  elevated  a  moderate  distance  above 
the  level  of  the  sea.  Weary  of  his  old  position,  the  giant, 
in  adjusting  himself  in  his  new  one,  leaves  his  elbows  pro- 
truding. Indeed,  if  we  may  extend  this  ugly  figure,  he 
may  be  represented  as  settling  himself  with  an  entire  arm 
protruding  above  the  waters  which  swept  over  North 
America.  Beginning  at  the  coast  of  Labrador,  the  arm — 
or  ancient  ridge  of  land — extends  southwest  to  the  north 
shore  of  Lake  Huron.  Here  is  the  elbow.  The  fore-arm 
and  hand  extend  thence  "northwesterly  toward  the  Arctic 
Ocean.  So  it  seems  to  be  an  arrangement  of  Nature  that 
"  Johnny  Bull"  shall  continue  to  thrust  his  elbows  into  the 
sides  of  Young  America  !  We  acquiesce,  for  the  present, 
in  this  arrangement.  Meanwhile,  other  spirits  will  be  sum- 
moned from  the  "  vasty  deep,"  and  teeming  life  will  appear 
upon  the  stage  in  the  next  act  of  the  drama. 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.      73 


CHAPTER  Vm, 

THE    FRONT    OF   THE   PROCESSION    OF   LIFE. 

f  I  \HE  spirits  have  come  forth.     The  life-giving  afflatus 
-*-    has  been  breathed  into  multitudes  of  organic  forms 
which  now  teem  in  the  Paleozoic  sea. 

"  Say,  mysterious  Earth !  oh  say,  great  Mother  and  Goddess ! 
Was  it  not  well  with  thee  then,  when  first  thy  lap  was  ungirdled, 
Thy  lap  to  the  genial  Heaven,  the  day  that  he  wooed  thee  and  won  thee  ? 
Fair  was  thy  blush,  the  fairest  and  first  of  the  blushes  of  morning ; 
Deep  was  the  shudder,  oh  Earth !  the  throe  of  thy  self-retention ; 
July  thou  strovest  to  flee,  and  didst  seek  thyself  at  thy  centre ! 
Mightier  far  was  the  joy  of  thy  sudden  resilience ;  and  forthwith 
Myriad  myriads  of  lives  teemed  forth  from  the  mighty  embracement, 
Thousand  fold  tribes  of  dwellers,  impelled  by  thousand  fold  instincts, 
Filled  as  a  dream  the  wide  waters. " 

The  long  period  of  almost  total  lifelessness — the  Eozoic 
Time — it  will  be  remembered,  was  Drought  to  a  close  by 
the  upheaval  of  a  long  ridge  of  land,  extending  from  the 
coast  of  Labrador  to  the  northern  shores  of  the  great  lakes, 
and  thence  northwest  to  the  Arctic  Sea.  Corresponding 
upheavals  took  place  on  other  continents.  A  convulsion 
could  not  jar  one  half  the  globe  without  being  felt  upon 
the  other  half,  and  hence  it  is  that  all  the  grand  revolu- 
tions of  geology  were  simultaneous,  and  the  histories  of 
different  continents  are  divided  into  corresponding  chap- 
ters. We  confine  our  attention,  however,  to  North  Amer- 
ica. The  germinal  ridge  consists  of  an  axis  or  nucleus  of 
granitic  material,  and  on  each  side  of  a  series  of  gneissoid 
and  other  eozoic  strata  sloping  like  the  roof  of  a  house  from 
the  central  and  highest  part.  We  know  that  this  upheaval 
took  place  after  tjie  deposition  of  the  eozoic  strata,  because 
those  strata  could  not  have  been  deposited  in  their  present 

D 


74 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


tilted  position  (Fig.  19).    We  know  that  it  took  place  be- 
fore the  deposition  of  the  next  series  of  strata,  because 


Fig.  19.  Disturbed  condition  of  Eozoic  Strata. 
a.  Eozoic  strata,  tilted  and  contorted  by  disturbances  occurring  before  the  deposi- 
tion of  the  Paleozoic  strata,  b,  c,  d.    e,  e,  e.  Faults  or  dislocations  of  Eozoic  and 
Paleozoic  strata,  evidently  of  later  date  than  the  contortions  of  a. 

these  strata  were  not  tilted  by  the  upheaval,  but  continue 
to  present  their  horizontal  edges  against  the  inclined  faces 
of  the  eozoic  beds.  Thus  the  precise  relative  period  of  this 
upheaval  is  fixed. 

Consider  the  geography  of  the  North  American  continent 
at  this  date.     An  angular  ridge  of  land  (Fig.  20)  is  all  that 


s * 


Fig.  20.  The  Germ  of  the  North  American  Continent. 
,  a.  The  two  branches  of  the  continent,    b,  b.  Islands.    (The  modern  continent  is 


indicated  by  dotted  lines,  the  rivers  by  broken  lines.) 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.      75 

then  existed.  The  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Alleghanies 
were  not  yet  born  from  the  deep.  Where  were  the  United 
States  ?  Where  the  broad  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  wide-extended  plains  of  the  far  West  ?  Beneath  the 
wave,  and  receiving  the  sediments  of  the  same  sea  which 
rolled  over  the  future  sites  of  Babylon,  and  Tyre,  and 
Athens,  and  the  seven  hills  of  the  "  Eternal  City."  The 
generations  of  men  yet  slumbered  in  the  chambers  of  futu- 
rity. The  order  of  Providence  had  assigned  them  their  posi- 
tion in  the  grand  procession  of  life  which  was  now  beginning 
to  move,  and  the  scouts  of  which  had  passed  by  in  the  pre- 
ceding age;  but  we  must  wait  for  man  till  a  long  line  of  gro- 
tesque and  marvelous  forms  has  marched  before  our  view. 
The  van  of  this  procession  was  led  by  some  of  the  hum- 
bler forms  of  God's  creation.  We  shall  indeed  look  in  vain 
for  a  type  of  existence  of  simpler  mould  than  the  Lauren- 
tian  Eozoon.  It  is  likely  that  beings  akin  to  this  accom- 
panied the  shoals  of  higher  forms  which  sprang  into  exist- 
ence at  the  morning  dawn  of  the  Silurian  Age.  But  if 
they  lived,  the  record  of  their  existence  has  been  effaced 
from  the  earth..  Like  the  deeds  and  the  sufferings  of  the 
men  who  kept  company  with  the  extinct  quadrupeds  of  Eu- 
rope, and  chased  the  fur-clad  mammoth  across  the  steppes 
of  Siberia,  their  very  existence  is  reached  only  by  conject- 
ure, and  the  activities  which  made  up  life  with  them  have 
all  been  locked  up  with  the  arcana  of  the  past.  The  creat- 
ures whose  relics  we  have  disentombed  were  more  highly 
gifted  than  the  Eozoon,  and  were  launched  into  being  un- 
der a  great  variety  of  forms.  The  oldest  Silurian  rocks  of 
North  America  are  perhaps  those  revealed  to  science  upon 
the  island  of  Newfoundland  by  the  assiduity  of  the  Cana- 
dian geologists.  Their  records  have  been  recently  studied 
by  the  paleontologist  Billings,  of  Montreal,  an  investigator 
eminent  for  acuteness  and  for  the  importance  of  his  paleon- 


76  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

tolo'gical  discoveries.  An  assemblage  of  strata  named  by 
him  the  "  St.  John's  Group"  is  described  as  underlying 
rocks  that  had  heretofore  been  regarded  as  forming  the 
very  base  of  the  Silurian  system  in  America.  These  St. 
John's  strata  may  probably  be  regarded  as  inclosing  the 
remains  of  the  first  considerable  fauna  that  ever  lived 
within  the  limits  of  America.  Our  knowledge  of  these 
primeval  relics  is  as  yet  very  imperfect*,  being  limited  to 

one  crinoid,twobrachiopods, 
and  half  a  dozen  genera  of 
trilobites.  Though  they  mark 
generally  a  great  simplicity 
of  organization,  one  can  not 
but  be  astonished  that  in  the 
very  outset  of  animalization 
upon  our  globe  so  high  a 
rank  and  so  great  variety  of 
types  should  have  been  man- 
ifested. If  we  are  to  judge 
from  that  which  is  known 
rather  than  that  which  is  con. 
jectured,  we  are  compelled 
to  conclude  that  the  varied 
forms  of  animal  life  did  not 
come  into  being  by  a  gradual 
evolution  from  the  Eozoon, 
but  as  so  many  original  ut- 
Fig.  21.  Paradoxidesiiariani(x^).  St.  terances  of  the  all-skilled  Ar- 

John's  Trilobite.  j .  n  „ 

tincer  of  creation. 
Of  the  "  Potsdam  group"  of  strata  [see  Appendix,  Note 
III.],  and  the  organic  remains  which  they  inclose,  we  have 
learned  somewhat  more.    The  "  Potsdam  sandstone"  at  the 

*  Billings  (E.):  "Catalogues  of  the  Silurian  Fossils  of  the  Island  of 
Anticosti,"p.  7i). 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.      77 


bottom  of  the  group,  was  long  regarded  as  the  oldest  fos- 
siliferous  rock  in  America.  It  is  certainly  not  far  from  the 
lowest  horizon  of  the  primeval  cemeteries  whfch  hold  the 
dust  of  the  first  denizens  of  our  planet.  This  sandstone  is 
sometimes  whitish  or  grayish,  but  often  of  a  dull  red  color, 
and  sometimes  slaty ;  and  except  within  the  area  covered 
by  the  St.  John's  group,  it  is  found  resting  upon  the  up- 
turned edges  of  the  Eozoic  strata.  Observe  that  it  is  a 
sandstone.  Now  we  know  that  in  the  waters  of  the  pres- 
ent day,  sands  are  accumulated  only  in  comparatively  tur- 
bulent and  shallow  regions.  In  calmer  and  deeper  waters, 
the  sediments  are  necessarily  finer,  as  only  the  finest  par- 
ticles can  be  transported  by  the  slowest  moving  currents 
(compare  Fig.  15).     Moreover,  many  a  layer  of  this  ancient 

sandstone,  when  uncov- 
ered to  the  light,  pre- 
sents us  with  veritable 
ripple  marks — such  as 
the  waves  are  making 
to-day  in  the  fine  sand 
of  the  shallow  water 
near  the  beach — sand- 
ripples  which  have  been 
preserved  unmarred  for 
millions  of  years,  and 
unite  with  other  proofs 
that  the  bottom  of  the 
Protozoic  sea  was  not 
beneath  the  reach  of  the 
agitations  of  its  surface. 
This  interesting  sand- 
stone was  first  atten- 
tively studied  at  Pots- 
dam and  Keeseville,  in 


Fig.  22.  Cliffs  of  Potsdam  Sandstone  on  the 
Au  Sable  River,  New  York. 


78  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

Northern  New  York,  and  the  geologists  of  the  Natural 
History  Survey  of  that  state  christened  it  accordingly  from 
one  of  these  localities  (Fig.  22).  It  was  burst  through  at 
some  subsequent  period  by  some  of  the  granitic  rocks  now 
constituting  the  region  of  the  Adirondacs — or,  if  some  of 
their  domes  were  already  islands  in  the  Eozoic  ocean  (b, 
Fig.  20),  their  massive  walls  have  been  heaved  to  higher 
altitudes  by  later  efforts  of  nature,  since  the  rocky  wrap- 
pings of  their  flanks  have  been  raised  to  inclinations  which 
prove  disturbance  subsequent  to  their  deposition.  This 
sandstone  extends  southward  into  Pennsylvania,  where,  at 
a  still  later  period,  it  was  upheaved  by  the  convulsion  which 
brought  the  Alleghanies  to  light.  Still  farther  south,  in 
Virginia,  Tennesseej  and  Alabama,  this  ancient  sea-bottom 
has  been  brought  up  at  intervals  along  the  dislocations  of 
the  Appalachian  range ;  while  on  the  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi it  comes  up  again  in  the  highlands  of  Texas  and  Ar- 
kansas, in  Eastern  Missouri,  and  the  Northwestern  States, 
and  has  been  broken  through  in  the  Black  Hills  of  Dacotah 
by  a  comparatively  recent  protrusion  of  granite.  From 
Northern  New  York  it  trends  down  the  valley  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  while  in  the  opposite  direction  it  crosses  over  to 
the  northern  shore  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Superior — underlies 
the  western  portion  of  Superior,  and  spreads  itself  out  over 
vast  areas  in  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  whence  its  main 
outcrop  sets  out  for  the  region  of  McKenzie's  River,  on  the 
arctic  slope  of  the  continent. 

These  localities  and  regions  are  but  the  present  places 
of  outcrop  or  exposure  of  a  solidified  bed  of  sands,  which 
was  accumulating  in  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  at  the  time 
of  which  we  speak.  What  of  the  beings  that  enjoyed  the 
throb  of  life  in  those  ancient  waters  ?  The  renowned  pa- 
leontologist of  New  York,  Professor  James  Hall,  has  made 
us  acquainted  with  but  two  or  three  distinct  creatures 


THE  front  of  the  procession  of  life.     79 


Fi 


23.  Lingula 
prima. 


Fig.  24.  Lingula 
antiqua. 


from  the  whole  extent  of  the  typical  region  of  the  Pots- 
dam sandstone.  These  have  been  named  Lingula  prima 
and  Lingula  antiqua.  They  are- 
little  bivalve  shells  belonging  at 
the  bottom  of  the  class  Brachio- 
poda,  which  is  nearly  the  lowest 
class  among  molluscs.  As  desti- 
tute of  the  senses  as  an  oyster, 
they  were  equally  incapable  of 
locomotion,  being  anchored  to  the  bottom  by  a  fleshy 
stem  or  peduncle  which  issued  through  the  hinder  part  of 
the  shell,  and  had  an  intonal  organization  which  was  even 
more  rudimentary  and  homogeneous  than  that  of  the  "bi- 
valve," which  has  become  the  type  of  insensibility  and 
stupidity.  The  same  little  shells  have  been  observed  in 
Northern  Michigan,  in  Minnesota,  in 
Wisconsin,  in  Alabama,  and  even  in 
the  Old  World,  every  where  occupy- 
ing a  position  in  strata  which  were 
accumulated  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Potsdam  sandstone.  In  many  in- 
stances the  extent  to  which  the 
number  of  individuals  was  multi- 
plied is  truly  amazing,  while  the 
whole  catalogue  of  species  of  mol- 
luscs in  this  sandstone  scarcely 
reaches  half  a  dozen.  With  these  bivalves,  in  Wisconsin 
and  Minnesota,  are-  associated  jncredible  numbers  of  trilo- 
bites.  As  might  be  expected  in  deposits  formed  under 
such  conditions  as  gave  rise  to  sands,  the  trilobites  are 
found  generally  in  a  greatly  damaged  condition.  These 
Northwestern  cemeteries  have  been  mainly  explored  by 
Dr.  D.  D.  Owen,  Professor  James  Hall,  and  Br.  B.  F.  Shu- 
mard.     The  writer  has  also  had  the  opportunity  to  bring 


Fig.  25.  Modern  Lingnlas  an- 
chored to-  a  support. 


80 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  26.  Dicellocephalus 
Minuesoteusis. 


to 'light  some  hitherto  unrecognized  forms.  Still  other 
species  have  been  made  known  from  Texas  by  Dr.  Shu- 
mard  and  Dr.  F.  Romer.  Trilobites  be- 
long to  the  lower — not  the  lowest — part 
of  the  sub-kingdom  of  Articulates.  The 
radiates  and  the  great  mass  of  molluscs 
hold  inferior  rank,  and  yet  throughout 
the  world  we  find  these  lower  strata 
characterized  by  a  profuseness  and  va- 
riety of  trilobite  remains  which  are  not 
approached  by  the  molluscs  or  the  ra- 
diates. Man^^nvestigators  have  con- 
tributed to  our  knowledge  of  these  pri- 
mordial creatures,  but  to  none  are  we  so  deeply  indebted 
as  to  M.  J.  Barrande,  who  has  enriched  with  marvelous  de- 
tails his  great  work  upon  the  "  Silurian  System  of  Bohe- 
mia." He  has  traced  them  through  the  various  stages  of 
their  embryonic  development,  and  shown  that  they  under- 
went metamorphoses  to  some  extent  similar  to  certain  in- 
sects. Varying  in  size  from  a  pea  to  a  foot  or  more  in 
length,  they  had  the  jointed  external  shell  of  a  lobster,  and 
could  roll  themselves  together  like  a  hedgehog  for  the  pur- 
pose of  passive  protection.  Multitudes  of  them  are  found 
folded  in  this  condition  (Fig.  27),  intelligible  witnesses  of 
an  instinctive  shrinking  from  the  death-pang,  which,  even 
in  this  early  age,  was  the  means  employed 
by  Providence  to  secure  the  lives  of  his  sen- 
sitive creatures.  With  a^  except  the  lower 
forms  the  eyes  are  distinctly  discernible,  and 
even  in  these  the  places  for  the  eyes  are  vis- 
ible, and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  they 
were  blind.  In  the  others  the  eyes  are  cu- 
riously compound,  like  those  of  the  common  house-fly.  Did 
the  reader  ever  examine  the  eyes  of  the  domestic  fly  with 


Pig.  27.  Side  view 
of  a  Trilobite 
(Calymene  soia- 
ria)  rolled  up. 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE,      gl 

a  hand  magnifier  ?  If  not,  the  beautiful  and  perfect  struc- 
ture which  it  displays  will  compensate  for  the  trouble  of 
procuring  the  means  to  make  the  observation.  Some  scores 
of  little  lenses,  arranged  with  the  most  perfect  symmetry, 
each  set  in  its  little  telescopic  tube,  form  upon  the  retina 
of  the  little  insect  the  various  portions  of  an  image  of  some 
external  object.  Such  eyes  had  the  trilobite  (Fig.  28).  It 
is  marvelous  that  such  delicate  structures  have  been  so 


Fig.  28.  The  eye  of  a  Trilobite  magnified. 

a.  Eye  of  Asaphus  caudatus.    b.  A  few  facets  of  the  eye  of  Calrjmene 

macrophthalmus. 

perfectly  preserved  as  in  some  trilobites  which  I  have  ex- 
amined from  the  neighborhood  of  Dubuque,  Iowa.  These, 
however,  existed  in  the  period  following  the  Potsdam.  The 
trilobite  was  tri-lobed  in  two  respects.  Longitudinally,  the 
oval  form  was  divided  into  head,  body,  and  tail ;  while  in 
the  other  direction  a  couple  of  lengthwise  grooves  divided 
the  animal  into  middle,  right,  and  left  lobes,  or  regions. 

In  this  earliest  scene  of  animalization,  mollusks  and  ra- 
diates play  comparatively  an  inconspicuous  role.  But  it 
must  be  remarked  that  both  these  types  of  existence  had 
been  introduced.  Among  the  molluscs  we  have  found,  be- 
sides the  representatives  of  Brachiopods  already  mentioned, 
a  few  other  members  of  the  same  class,  and  also  some  coiled 
univalves,  which  belong  to  the  higher  class  of  Gasteropods. 
Among  the  radiates  we  have  in  the  Old  World  a  few  rep- 
resentatives from  the  middle  of  the  sub-kingdom  in  point 
of  rank,  while  among  Protozoa  we  find  a  few  forms  related 


82  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

to  sponges,  with  calcareous  instead  of  horny  skeletons.  In 
the  epoch  immediately  following  this,  animal  life  rose  to  a 
slightly  higher  grade,  and  unfolded  in  a  great  variety  of 
subordinate  types.  Before  the  close,  of  the  Potsdam  pe- 
riod— before  the  deposition  of  the  sediments  which  formed 
the  limestone  and  marls  of  Cincinnati,  and  have  given  char- 
acter to  the  far-famed  "  blue-grass  region"  of  Kentucky — 
life  had  been  ushered  upon  our  globe  in  such  richness  and 
variety,  that  not  only  had  three  of  the  four  fundamental 
plans  of  animal  organization  been  realized,  but  all  or  near- 
ly all  the  various  classes  of  the  three  lower  sub-kingdoms 
had  been  fairly  represented. 

Many  extensive  regions  of  the  Potsdam  sandstone  and 
overlying  calciferous  sand-rock  are,  nevertheless,  almost, 
if  not  quite  destitute  of  the  traces  of  organic  existence. 
Along  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior  is  a  sandstone 
once  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  Potsdam,  but  probably, 
in  part,  of  the  age  of  the  "Calciferous,"  in  which  we  search 
in  vain  for  any  of  those  fossil  remains  so  common  in  Min- 
nesota.  "We  find  nothing  but  the  imprints  of  soft  sea- 
weeds (Fig.  29) — things  like  films  of  jelly,  which  have  left 
their  imprints  upon  the  coarse  rock,  and  have  transmitted 
to  us  a  knowledge  of  their  existence  and  nature,  while  the 
traces  of  an  army's  march  are  obliterated  by  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  a  single  season. 

The  Lake  Superior  sandstone,  whatever  its  geological 
age,  is  a  formation  of  remarkable  interest,  both  in  its  re- 
lations to  the  basin  of  the  largest  lake  in  the  world,  in  its 
relations  to  the  world-renowned  copper  deposits  of  the  re- 
gion, and,  not  less,  in  its  relations  to  some  of  the  finest 
scenery  of  the  continent.  The  remarkable  interest  of  this 
formation  was  first  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Douglass  Houghton 
— a  name  more  honored  and  beloved  among  the  Wolverines 
than  any  other  in  the  lists  of  science. 


84 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


The  convulsions  which  closed  the  Potsdam  period  pro- 
truded through  this  formation  enormous  vertical  walls  of 

molten  rock,  known 
by  the  general  name 
of  "trap,"  or  dolerite, 
or  deles  site.  The 
bursting  through  of 
these  igneous  mate- 
rials tilted  up  the 
broken  edges  of  the 
Fig.  30.  outlines  of  Lake  Superior.  sandstone,  and  form- 

ed between  the  lines  of  outburst  deep  valleys,  which  have 
become  the  bed  of  the  lake.  The  sandstone  which  plunges 
beneath  the  water's  surface  on  the  northwest  side  of  Kew- 
enaw  Point  reappears  on  He  Royale,  which  was  formed, 
like  Kewenaw  Point,  by  an  outburst  of  dolerite  (Fig.  31). 

a: 


ft  f  f 

Fig.  81.  Section  across  Lake  Superior,  along  the  line  XX,  Fig.  30. 
a,  a.  The  water  level,    b.  Trap  outburst  north  of  the  lake.    c.  Trap  outburst  form- 
ing He  Royale.    d.  Trap  outburst  forming  Kewenaw  Point,    e.  Lake  Superior 
sandstone  and  conglomerate,    f.  Eozoic  and  other  rocks  underlying  the  sand- 
stone. 

From  the  north  side  of  He  Royale  the  sandstone  glides 
under  the  water  again,  and  reappears  upon  the  northern 
shore  of  the  lake.  The  basin  of  the  lake  is  therefore  a  ge- 
ological valley — a  "synclinal"  valley — formed  by  the  ig- 
neous eruptions  upon  the  northern  and  southern  shores. 
Its  origin,  as  will  be  seen,  is  entirely  different  from  the 
origin  of  any  of  the  other  lake  basins  of  the  chain. 

The  escape  of  the  molten  rocks  of  the  region  fused  out 
the  copper  and  silver,  which  were  disseminated  through 
the  neighboring  strata,  and  accumulated  them  in  masses 
of  great  commercial  importance.     An  enormous  dike  of 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.       35 

dolerite,  three  or  four  miles  in  width,  runs  like  a  backbone 
from  the  head  of  Kewenaw*  Point,  southwest  and  west,  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Ontonagon  (see  Fig.  30).  Upon  this 
the  copper  mines  of  the  region  are  located.  In  each  direc- 
tion from  this  backbone  slopes  the  sandstone  which  was 
upturned  by  it  (Fig.  31).  Directly  across  this  adamantine 
ridge  passes  a  stupendous  cleft,  which  has  been  filled  with 
water  from  the  lake.  Thus  has  been  formed  Portage  Lake, 
a  narrow,  winding  body  of  water,  which  vessels  navigate 
from  the  east  to  within  two  or  three  miles  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior on  the,  west.  Commerce  has  undertaken  to  complete 
the  work  begun  by  Nature,  and  soon  Kewenaw  Point  will 
be  an  island. 

Toward  the  eastern  extremity  of  Lake  Superior  the  for- 
mation reposes  in  nearly  horizontal  beds,  and  the  erosion 
of  the  lake  along  the  southern  shore  has  carved  out  bold 
escarpments  which  arrest  the  attention  of  every  traveler. 
These  have  been  named  the  "Pictured  Rocks"  (Fig.  32), 
from  the  diversified  colorings  of  the  various  portions  of  the 
sandstone  mass.  It  is  a  dangerous  coast,  and  no  species 
of  craft  ventures  within  inspection  distance  except  in  calm 
and  settled  weather.  The  high  bold  wall  looks  sheer  across 
the  lake,  and  the  storm-wind  rolls  tremendous  surges 
against  its  stern,  defiant  face.  They  have  excavated  cav- 
erns which  a  canoe  may  traverse,  and  in  which  the  impris- 
oned billows  howl  with  the  resonance  of  a  Nahant  purga- 
tory. They  have  carved  out  mimic  architecture  and  spread 
a  mimic  sail.  In  times  long  gone  by  they  have  flanked  a 
stubborn  bluff,  and  cut  it  oif  from  the  main  land  by  a  mili- 
tary "  ditch"  of  the  most  successful  kind,  since  it  is  a  mile  , 
wide,  and  is  navigated  by  the  largest  vessels.  The  isolated 
piece  is  known  as  Grand  Island. 

"  The  range  of  cliifs  to  which  the  name  of  Pictured  Rocks 
has  been  given,"  say  Foster  and  Whitney,"  may  be  regard- 


K  ^^^HfflBI 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.      87 

ed  as  among  the  most  striking  and  beautiful  features  of  the 
scenery  of  the  Northwest,  and  are  well  worthy  of  the  at- 
tention of  the  artist,  of  the  lover  of  the  grand  and  beauti- 
ful, and  of  the  observer  of  geological  phenomena."* 

The  first  display  of  architectural  mimicry  witnessed  in 
coasting  eastward  is  a  salient  mass  of  sandstone  known  as 
the  "  Miner's  Castle,"  presenting  the  turreted  elevation  and 
arched  and  massive  doorway  of  some  ancient  feudal  seat. 
The  height  of  the  doorway  is  about  seventy  feet,  while  the 
tops  of  the  turrets  are  one  hundred  and  forty  feet  above 
the  lake  (Fig.  32). 

About  five  miles  farther  eastward  the  cliffs  attain  an  el- 
evation of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  feet,  pre- 
senting a  series  of  sinuosities  or  scollops  hewn  out  by  the 
action  of  the  waves.  One  of  the  grandest  and  most  regu- 
lar of  these  was  named  "  The  Amphitheatre"  by  Foster  and 
Whitney.  Still  farther  eastward  this  scolloped  contour 
graduates  into  extravagant  carvings,  which  have  wrought 
the  mural  wall  into  wierd  Titanic  mimicry  of  architectural 
forms.  Yast  tablets  from  the  upper  courses  of  the  wall, 
sapped  by  the  agency  of  eroding  waves,  have  tumbled 
down  and  strewn  the  beach  in  places  with  fragments  which 
lead  the  traveler  to  believe  he  is  clambering  among  the 
ruins  of  gigantic  temples  shattered  by  an  earthquake  shud- 
der. A  group  of  these  fallen  fragments  presents  a  striking 
similitude  to  the  jib  and  mainsail  of  a  sloop  full  spread, 

*  Report  on  the  Geology  of  the  Lake  Superior  Land  District,  part 
ii.,  p.  124  (1857).  These  authors  have  given  the  fullest  and  most  exact 
account  of  the  Pictured  Rocks  that  has  yet  been  published.  Schoolcraft, 
at  an  early  period,  undertook  to  describe  this  range  of  cliffs  and  illustrate 
the  scenery,  but  with  very  poor  success.  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  xxxiv., 
p.  681  (May,  1867),  contains  a  lively  and  interesting  paper  on  the  "Pic- 
tured Rocks,"  embodying  several  good  illustrations.  Some  of  the  follow- 
ing views  are  from  photographs  by  Watson,  taken  on  an  excursion  by  a 
party  from  the  University  of  Michigan  in  1868,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  A.  E.  Foote. 


90 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


and  hence  has  been  dubbed  by  the  voyageurs  "the  Sail 
Hock"  (Fig.  33). 

A  mile  farther  east  we  reach  "  The  Grand  Portal"  (Fig. 
34).  This  is  an  enormous  arched  gateway  one  hundred 
feet  in  height  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  broad,  open- 
ing into  a  magnificent  vaulted  passage  some  three  hundred 
feet  deep,  and  expanding  into  a  massive  dome.  These 
apartments,  with  their  ramifications,  have  been  hewn  in  an 
enormous  quadrangular  block  of  brown  sandstone  project- 
ing sheer  into  the  lake  six  hundred  feet,  and  presenting  a 
front  of  three  or  four  hundred  feet,  with  a  frowning  facade 
lifted  full  one  hundred  and  thirty-three   feet  above  the 


Fig.  35.  Camp  on  the  Beach  near  the  Chapel. 


THE  FRONT   OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.      91 

water  which  bathes  the  foundations  and  resounds  through 
the  vaulted  passages  of  this  most  magnificent  of  Nature's- 
cromlechs. 

The  last  and  most  grotesque  of  these  mural  structures  is 
"The  Chapel."     At  the  height  of  forty  feet  above  the  lake 


36.  The  Chapel— "  Pictured  Rocks.' 


is  a  rocky  floor,  from  the  four  angles  of  which  rise  curiously 
wrought  columns  of  masonry  in  thin  and  regular  courses. 
These  support  a  massive  vaulted  roof  that  covers  a  rustic 
auditorium  forty  feet  in  diameter  and  forty  feet  high,  which 
suggested  the  name  of  the  structure.  At  the  base  of  one 
of  the  columns  is  excavated  an  arched  niche,  which  may  be 


92 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


reached  by  a  flight  of  steps  formed  of  the  retreating  layers 
of  the  sandstone.  This  is  the  pulpit.  In  front  lies  a  tabu- 
lar mass  of  rock  which  answers  for  the  desk,  while  an  iso- 
lated block  on  the  right  represents  an  altar.  "If  the  whole 
had  been  adapted  expressly  for  a  place  of  worship,  and 
fashioned  by  the  hand  of  man,  it  could  hardly  have  been 
arranged  more  appropriately.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  de- 
scribe the  singular  and  unique  effect  of  this  extraordinary 
structure.  It  is  truly  a  temple  of  Nature — '  a  house  not 
made  with  hands.' " 

Hard  by  this  chapel,  erected  by  the  hand  of  Nature  to 
symbolize  the  devotion  which  Nature's  solitudes  inspire,  is 
one  of  Nature's  preachers — a  beautiful  cascade — lifting  up 
its  voice  perpetually  in  hearing  of  the  spirits  of  the  prime- 
val wilderness  in  the  rear. 


Fig. 37.  Chapel  Falls— "Pictured  Rocks, 


THE  FRONT  OF  THE  PROCESSION  OF  LIFE.       93 

"Mingling  its  echoes  with  the  eagle's  cry, 
And  with  the  sounding  lake,  and  with  the  moaning  sky." 

Not  far  east  from  here  rises  a  stupendous  dune  of  sand, 
or,  rather,  a  promontory  of  uncemented  sand  and  clay, 
capped  by  a  shifting  dune.  The  grinding  action  of  the 
waves  has  pulverized  a  cubic  mile  of  sandstone  and  super- 
incumbent drift,  which  has  been  strewn  over  the  lake's 
bottom.  The  nervous  wind-gust  has  wrested  it  from  the 
water,  and  made  it  a  plaything  of  its  own.  Dried  by  the 
sun  and  air,  it  has  been  driven  inland  till  the  forest  is  sub- 
merged, and  a  shining  promontory  called  Grand  Sable  lifts 
its  forehead  four  hundred  feet  above  the  lake — a  landmark 
for  the  mariner  and  a  marvel  to  the  lover  of  Nature. 


94  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DISCOVERY   OF   THE   PROGRAMME. 

ri^HE  reader  will  have  observed  that  the  primal  or  Pots- 
-*-  dam  sandstone  has  been  traced  all  around  the  circuit 
of  the  central  United  States.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it 
underlies  all  the  region  embraced  within  the  circumference 
of  its  outcrop.  Indeed,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  an  artesian  bor- 
ing has  probed  the  crust  2000  feet  and  more,  and  found  this 
sandstone  in  its  proper  place.  At  Lafayette,  in  Indiana, 
Louisville,  in  Kentucky,  St.  Louis,  in  Missouri,  and  Chicago, 
in  Illinois,  similar  deep  borings  have  been  executed,  and 
the  succession  of  strata,  as  far  as  the  borings  extend,  has 
been  exactly  such  as  geology  expected ;  and  there  can  not 
be  a  doubt,  that  wherever  exploration  should  be  made 
throughout  the  wide  extent  of  the  area  indicated,  the 
Potsdam  sandstone  would  be  found  occupying  its  proper 
position  at  the  bottom  of  the  Silurian  series  of  strata.  As 
the  same  formation  has  been  upheaved,  at  intervals,  along 
the  whole  distance  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  geologists 
have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  entire  area  of  the 
United  States  and  Territories  was,  during  the  Lower  Silu- 
rian Age,  the  bed  of  a  comparatively  shallow  sea. 

This  conclusion  leads  to  a  generalization  of  the  highest 
interest.  How  came  the  central  area  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican continent  a  basin  of  shallow  water?  We  can  only 
infer  that,  at  this  early  period,  the  Alleghanies  on  the  east, 
and  the  Rocky  Mountains  on  the  west,  had  already  begun 
to  be  lifted  above  the  general  floor  of  the  ocean.  The  Uni- 
ted States  were  an  immense  continental  lagoon — a  subma- 


DISCO  VEB  Y  OF  THE  FROG  HA  MME. 


95 


rine  plateau,  such  as  now  exists 
in   the   North  Atlantic,  upon 
which   the    telegraphic    cable 
has  been  laid.     The  outline  of 
the  continent  was  consequent- 
ly marked  out  while"  yet  in  em- 
bryo.    The  foundation  of  the 
Alleghanies  was  laid  ages  be- 
fore   the    superstructure    rose 
above  the  waves,  and  exposed 
to  the  light  of  day  the  predes- 
tined   trend    of  the    Atlantic 
coast  of  our  country.     But  we 
trace  the  development  of  this 
idea  back  to  a  still  remoter  pe- 
riod.    Note  the  trends  of  the 
primeval   riage   (Figs.  19  and 
39)   which  still  lies   thrusting 
its  angle  down  into  the  north- 
ern notch  of  the  "great  lakes." 
"Northeast  and  northwest" 
was  the  language  of  that  early- 
uttered  decree  which  foredeter- 
mined  the  shape  of  the  conti- 
nent which  was  destined  to  be- 
come the  "  land  of  the  free." 
That  primal  ridge  was  its  ear- 
liest germ.     Successive  annex- 
ations to  this  germinal  conti- 
nent have  been  uniformly  to- 
ward the  southeast  and  south- 
west.  This  primitive  ridge  was 
not  alone  an  early  prophecy  of 
the  trends  of  our  present  coast 


San  Francisco. 

Mount  Diabolo,  3770  ft. 


Sierra  Nevada,  15,000  ft. 
Pyramid  Lake,  5000  ft. 


Humboldt  Mountains,  7473  ft. 

Great  Salt  Lake,  4200  ft. 

Utah  Lake,  4500  ft. 

Green  River  Valley,  3823  ft. 

Sierra  Madre. 
Pike's  Peak,  12,000  ft. 


Ozark  Mountains. 


Mississippi  River,  Cairo. 


Cumberland  Mountains,  2000  ft. 


>         Black  Mountain  (Blue  Ridge), 
N.  C.,  6476  ft. 


Cape  Hatteras. 


96  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

liries.  In  its  upper  angle  lies  Hudson's  Bay,  whose  place 
was  designated  as  soon  as  it  became  the  bottom  of  a  sub- 
marine valley.  The  southern  slope  of  the  ridge  became 
the  water-shed  which  was  to  supply  the  great  lakes  and 
the  St.  Lawrence.  The  St.  Lawrence  finds  its  outlet  to  the 
ocean  in  a  valley  parallel  with  the  ancient  ridge.  The  pe- 
culiar notch  from  Georgian  Bay  to  the  head  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  thence  to  the  Niagara  River,  m  conformed  to  the  sal- 


Fig.  39.  Hydrographic  and  Orographic  Outlines  of  North  America. 

ient  angle  of  the  same  ridge.  The  "  great  lakes"  them- 
selves are  but  links  in  the  vast  chain  of  lakes  extending  to 
the  Northern  Ocean,  accumulated  in  a  valley  inclosed  by 
the  western  branch  of  the  continental  nucleus  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  occidental  ridge  of  the  continent  on  the 
other.  The  Mississippi  pursues  its  course  along  the  bot- 
tom of  the  depression  between  the  Appalachian  and  Rocky 
Mountain  ridges,  while  the  McKenzie — the  Mississippi  of 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PROGRAMME.  97 

the  North — is  its  counterpart,  holding  possession  of  the 
northward  prolongation  of  the  same  depression.  Or,  to 
present  the  generalization  in  another  form,  the  primordial 
ridge,  with  its  northeast  and  northwest  branches,  holds 
Hudson's  Bay  in  its  embrace.  The  Appalachians  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains  constitute  the  two  branches  of  a  second- 
ary ridge,  which  do  not  meet  toward  the  south.  One  of 
these  branches  points  toward  the  prolongation  of  Florida 
and  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  and  the  other  toward  the 
prolongation  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  with  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico — the  Hudson's  Bay  of  the  South — occupy- 
ing a  depression  between  them.  The  space  between  the 
primary  and  secondary  ridges  has  two  systems  of  drain- 
age— rone  toward  the  north,  and  one  toward  the  south. 
Each  system  has  two  branches.  In  the  northern  system 
the  branches  diverge  from  the  lake  region  toward  the 
northeast  through  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  northwest 
through  the  McKenzie.  In  the  southern  system  the 
branches  converge  through  the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri, 
and  discharge  themselves  by  one  outlet  through  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Thus  the  whole  hydrographic  and  orographic  sys- 
tem of  North  America  has  been  determined  by  the  location 
of  these  skeleton  ridges — pieces  of  the  framework  which, 
though  for  unnumbered  ages  they  were  yet  unborn  from  the 
deep,  were  nevertheless  working  out  the  configuration  and 
the  topography  of  a  continent.  Indeed^  as  the  secondary 
pair  of  ridges  was  but  a  reduplication  of  the  first,  or  Lau- 
rentian  pair,  we  find  that  the  innumerable  hydrographical 
and  topographical  features  of  our  continent  have  taken 
their  point  of  departure  from  the  Laurentian  ridge  as  an 
initial  and  germinal  area.  Finally,  the  trend  and  confor- 
mation of  our  eastern  coast  are  what  has  turned  our  "Gulfs 
Stream"  to  the  northern  shores  of  Europe,  to  mitigate  the 
climate  of  a  little  inhospitable  island  in  the  latitude  of 

E 


98  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

Labrador,  and  nurture  its  people  to  become  the  "  guard- 
ians of  civilization." 

These  comprehensive  views  of  continental  development 
have  been  especially  wrought  out  by  that  Christian  gen- 
tleman and  unrivaled  scholar,  Professor  J.  D.  Dana,  of  New 
Haven. 

It  is  wonderful  to  behold  one  of  Nature's  great  plots 
worked  out  with  such  undeviating  unity  of  purpose. 
Though  incalculable  ages  have  elapsed  since  the  nucleus 
of  the  American  continent  was  lifted  above  the  waves,  we 
•  find  the  announcement  then  made  to  have  been  faithfully 
prosecuted  to  the  end.  What  convincing  proofs  of  the 
unity  of  the  Creative  Intelligence!  The  plastic  rocks 
have  always  been  moulded  by  the  hands  of  the  same  all- 
providing  Artificer.  How  it  exalts  our  apprehension  of 
his  infinite  attributes  to  behold  him  bringing  into  exist- 
ence a  series  of  secondary  causes,  so  simple  in  themselves, 
but  working  out  a  succession  of  results  so  complex  in  their 
details,  and  presenting  a  history  stamped  with  such  uni- 
formity of  plan,  such  harmony  of  parts,  and  such  wisdom 
of  design!  But  these  are  only  his  doings  in  the  material 
world.  When  we  contemplate  the  manifestation  of  his 
attributes  presented  to  us  by  animated  nature,  every  one 
imbued  with  the  spirit  and  love  of  truth  is  compelled,  with 
the  poet,  to  exclaim, 

"An  undevout philosopher  is  mad." 

We  turn,  then,  #to  consider  the  method  which  reigns 
among  creatures  exalted  with  the  gift  ef  life. 

Who  has  not  been  amazed  at  the  endless  variety  of  ani- 
mal forms  existing  upon  the  earth  ?  There  seems  to  be  no 
conceivable  conformation,  no  possible  situation,  no  circum- 
stances of  element,  climate,  food,  or  condition,  that  have 
not  been  made  the  fitting  and  essential  conditions  of  some 


BIS C  0  VER  Y  OF  THE  PR  0  GRAMME.  99 

type  of  conscious  existence.  One  animal  dwells  on  the 
land,  another  in  the  soil,  a  third  in  the  air,  a  fourth  in  salt 
water,  a  fifth  in  fresh ;  one  burrows  in  a  log,  another  in  a 
rock,  a  third  in  the  mud,  a  fourth  in  the  flesh,  or  brain,  or 
liver,  or  even  the  eye  of  another  animal.  Ponderous  quad- 
rupeds move  through  the  jungle,  wily  serpents  glide  among 
the  reeds,  the  centipede  crouches  under  a  stone,  the  minnow 
darts  beneath  the  sedgy  bank,  and  the  lazy  oyster  sleeps  in 
the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  bay.  We  place  beneath  the 
microscope  a  specimen  of  the  mud  in  which  the  oyster 
spends  his  drowsy  life,  or  even  a  sample  of  the  water  in 
which  the  familiar  frog  delights,  and  lo  !  another  world  is 
revealed  to  our  vision — vegetal  and  animal  life  in  forms  as 
varied  as  all  that  the  unassisted  eye  has  seen  in  the  great- 
er world. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Every  one  has  read  of  forms  long  since 
extinct — of  strange  and  monstrous  forms  that  sported 
upon  the  earth  before  the  empires  of  the  brute  creation 
had  been  subjugated  by  the  intellect  of  man.  A  stone- 
mason of  Cromarty  has  introduced  to  the  world  the  Aste- 
rolepis  of  Stromness,  and  the  Cephalaspis  and  Pterichthys 
of  the  "  old  red  sandstone" — fishes  which  the  most  learned 
had  at  one  time  almost  decided  to  throw  into  the  company 
of  turtles.  Mantell  has  amazed  us  with  stories  of  the  Igua- 
?iodon,  an  immense  lizard,  believed  by  him  to  have  been 
sixty  feet  in  length,  which  crawled  over  the  slime  of  the 
latest  part  of  the  Jurassic  period.  These  all  were  forms 
of  the  middle  ages  of  the  world's  history.  As  we  run 
back  through  the  aeons  preceding,  we  tread  upon  the 
graves  of  myriads  of  beings  which  in  their  day  swarmed 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  but  whose  lineage  and  likeness 
are  now  known  only  in  history.  We  push  back  through 
the  dim  dawn  of  being,  and  stand  upon  the  sandy  shore 
of  that  uneasy  sea  in  which  Creative  Power  first  essayed 


100  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

to  mould  the  plastic  clay  into  animal  forms,  and  plant  in 
them  ethereal  fire.  How  reverently  do  we  turn  up  the 
cleaving  stone,  and  gaze  upon  a  little  coral,  a  Lingula,  or  a 
trilobite,  and  think  that  these  were  the  forms  which  God 
first  exerted  his  skill  upon,  and  placed  first  in  possession 
of  our  round  and  verdant  planet !  And  how  different  those 
beings  from  all  we  know  upon  the  earth  to-day !  What  an 
infinite  range  of  aptitudes  between  that  humble  Singula 
and  the  majestic  mien  of  man !  Such  is  the  exhaustless 
fertility  of  God's  conception. 

We  place  ourselves,  then,  upon  the  threshold  of  animal 
existence,  and  inquire  what  course  creative  Power  will 
pursue.  Shall  we  witness  a  series  of  experiments  for  the 
slow  perfection  of  a  plan — models  and  methods  tried  and 
abandoned — detached  essays,  having  no  intelligent  connec- 
tion with  an  ultimate  or  central  scheme  ?  With  a  finite 
intelligence  such  experiments  would  have  been  unavoida- 
ble; but  Nature  has  served  no  apprenticeships;  the  end 
has  been  contemplated  from  the  beginning. 

There  are  two  things  which  strike  the  attention  of  every 
one  who  studies  the  history  of  the  ancient  populations  of 
our  globe.  First,  their  forms  and  features,  their  habits, 
and  the  details  of  their  living,  are  often  in  wide  contrast 
with  any  thing  we  behold  at  the  present  day.  Secondly, 
while  so  peculiar  in  their  details,  their  fundamental  feat- 
ures are  identical  with  those  of  existing  animals,  so  that 
we  call  them  by  the  same  generic  titles — corals,  shells, 
crustaceans.  And  if  we  scan  the  long  line  of  being  from 
the  Raurentian  to  the  present,  we  shall  find  nothing  which 
may  not  be  embraced  under  the  most  general  designations 
which  we  apply  to  existing  animals. 

Now  which  of  these  two  features  of  the  fossil  world  is 
most  instructive?  Their  wild  and  extravagant  forms  as- 
tonish us,  and  attract  the  curiosity  of  the  marvel-loving 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PROGRAMME.  101 

public.  Their  identity  of  fundamental  plan  impresses  us 
wifh  awe  and  reverence,  and  breathes  the  thoughts  of  a 
world-embracing  scope  of  intelligence.  The  first  converts 
the  animal  creation  into  a  vast  menagerie  for  the  curious 
to  wonder  at ;  the  latter  shows  it  to  be  a  lesson  of  wisdom 
traced  by  the  finger  of  the  Omniscient  himself. 

Let  us  see  what  is  the  nature  of  this  identity  of  plan 
which  runs  through  all  existence  and  all  time.  It  is  a  won- 
derful fact  in  Nature.  From  the  epoch  of  the  St.  John's 
molluscs  and  the  Potsdam  trilobites,  through  all  the  dreary 
ages  of  the  earth's  preparation  for  man,  but  four  funda- 
mental types  of  animal  structure  have  ever  existed.  All 
the  varied  forms  of  extinct  monsters  have  been  constructed 
upon  one  or  the  other  of  these  four  fundamental  plans. 
Throughout  the  wide  range  of  existing  beings — inhabiting 
the  deep  sea,  populating  the  air,  swarming  over  the  land, 
and  the  forest,  and  the  jungle — countless  equally  in  the 
number  of  individuals  and  in  the  number  of  distinguishable 
species — we  discern  but  the  same  four  foundation  plans  of 
structure  which  we  find  exemplified  in  the  creations  of  the 
ancient  world.  As  the  seven  fundamental  intervals  of  the 
gamut  have  in  their  endless  combinations  afforded  us  all 
the  varieties  of  melody  that  have  ever  greeted  the  ears  of 
the  world,  so  these  four  fundamental  plans  of  animalic 
structure  have  furnished  the  endless  variations  and  com- 
binations which  daily  greet  our  senses  with  never-ceasing 
novelty  and  delight.  As  Agassiz  has  aptly  and  beautifully 
illustrated  the  idea,  one  of  these  fundamental  plans  is  like 
the  fundamental  harmony  upon  which  an  endless  set  of 
variations  may  be  played.  Vary  it  to  what  extent  you 
will,  the  characteristics  of  the  theme  continually  recur. 
What  are  the  zoological  characters  of  these  four  funda- 
mental forms  may  be  learned  from  any  elementary  work  on 
the  science.   It  is  the  magnificent  generalization — for  which 


102  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

we -are  indebted  to  the  genius  of  George  Cuvier — that  I 
wish  to  impress.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  all  animals  are  either 
vertebrated — possessed  of  a  backbone ;  articulated — with  an 
external  horny  crust,  composed  of  rings,  like  insects,  lob- 
sters, and  worms ;  molluscous — with  soft  bodies  like  slugs, 
very  often  covered  by  a  shell,  like  snails  and  oysters ;  or 
radiated — with  bodies  composed  of  parts  somewhat  sym- 
metrically arranged  on  all  sides  with  reference  to  the  cen- 
tre, like  the  starfish  and  corals.  I  have  named  the  most 
striking  character  which  distinguishes  each  of  these  great 
branches  of  the  animal  kingdom.  All  the  other  parts  con- 
form to  these ;  indeed,  the  basis  of  each  peculiar  plan  is  laid 
in  the  nervous  system,  at  a  very  early  period  of  embryonic 
development ;  and  the  hard  parts — the  bones  and  external 
crust — are  moulded  to  this,  so  that,  though  the  real  basis 
of  these  distinctions  is  hidden  from  view,  the  external  form 
and  proportions  become  always  an  infallible  exponent  of 
the  fundamental  plan. 

Three  of  these  fundamental  plans  are  called  into  requisi- 
tion in  the  •constitution  of  the  very  first  population  of  our 
globe,  omitting  any  consideration  of  the  little-known  ex- 
istences of  the  Eozoic  Time.  The  coral  was  a  radiate ;  the 
Lingida  was  a  mollusc ;  the  trilobite  was  an  articulate. 
The  fourth  plan  was  drawn  upon  before  the  close  of  the 
first  great  period  of  animal  history,  and  was  realized  in  the 
form  of  a  fish. 

In  the  very  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Nature,  then,  we 
read  the  announcement  of  a  programme  which  is  still  in 
process  of  execution.  The  type  of  the  primeval  coral  has 
sprouted  into  the  sea-anemone,  the  sea-nettle,  and  the  star- 
fish. The  type  of  the  IAngula  has  been  degraded  into  the 
Bryozoan  and  nummulite,  and  expanded  into  the  clam,  the 
snail,  and  the  cuttle-fish.  The  type  of  the  trilobite  has 
varied  into  the  worm  below  and  the  insect  above ;  while 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PROGRAMME.  103 

the  vertebrate  type,  beginning  with  the  fish,  has  developed 
into  the  reptile,  the  bird,  the  quadruped,  and  man. 

Nor  does  method  end  here ;  nor  the  method  which  had 
its  first  announcement  on  the  morning  of  animal  existence. 
I  have  already  alluded  to  the  varied  conditions  under 
which  animal  life  presents  itself — the  various  ends  with 
reference  to  which  animals  have  been  modified — some  to 
swim,  some  to  fly,  some  to  climb,  some  to  burrow ;  some 
for  exalted  powers  and  active  habits,  others  for  a  degraded 
and  sluggish  existence.  Each  fundamental  type  has  been 
moulded,  and  warped,  and  adapted  to  these  varied  ends  and 
conditions  of  being.  At  the  same  time,  the  grand  charac- 
teristics of  the  type  have  been  conserved  even  in  the  ex- 
tremest  modifications.  The  modifications  of  the  funda- 
mental plan  to  adapt  it  to  these  various  ends  are  class- 
characters;  and  we  thus  find  that  Nature  has  herself 
grouped  the  members  of  each  branch  into  classes.  This 
method  is  as  old  as  the  animal  creation.  Not  only  did 
each  creature  which  played  its  part  in  the  primordial  fauna 
conform  to  one  of  the  four  fundamental  types  of  structure, 
but  it  also  conformed  to  the  characteristics  of  one  of  the 
preconceived  class-modifications  of  that  type. 

Lastly,  each  class-group  is  composed  of  different  grades 
of  animals,  constituting  so  many  different  orders  within  the 
limits  of  the  class.  This  gradation  of  ordinal  types  was 
also  recognized  in  the  organization  of  the  earliest  animals. 

Thus  the  whole  plan  of  creation  was  mapped  out  to  the 
mind  of  the  Creator  in  the  beginning.  We  shall  see,  as  we 
proceed  with  our  sketches  of  the  history  of  creation,  that 
every  step  in  the  evolution  of  continents,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  home  for  the  coming  man,  was  a  movement 
in  a  definite  direction,  effected  by  forces  chosen  from  the 
first,  and  shaped  always  with  reference  to  exigencies  which 
were  to  arise  in  the  far-distant  future.     We  shall  see  how 


104  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  simple  animal  forms  of  the  primeval  ocean  embodied 
in  themselves  germs  which  were  capable  of  unfolding  into 
the  richest  variety  of  adaptations  and  the  most  exalted  ca- 
pabilities. There  can  be  no  nobler,  no  more  instructive  and 
inspiring  employment,  than  to  stand  where  we  do,  at  the 
end  of  this  long  history,  and,  looking  back  upon  it,  catch 
its  method,  and  reproduce  in  our  own  minds  the  sublime 
conceptions  of  the  Architect  of  the  World. 


THE  GARDEN  OF  STONE  LILIES.  105 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    GARDEN    OF    STONE    LILIES. 

WE  have  wandered  down  through  the  fiery  mazes  of 
the  prsesedimentary  ages  of  the  world,  and  have 
seen  the  granite,  the  quartz,  feldspar,  and  mica,  the  horn- 
blende, and  other  first-born  products  of  primeval  refrigera- 
tion organizing  themselves  in  obedience  to  the  molecular 
forces  of  Nature ;  we  have  witnessed  the  floods  descending, 
and  cubic  miles  of  sediments  settling  in  the  bed  of  the 
Eozoic  sea;  we  have  gazed  upon  the  first  flickerings  of 
animated  existence,  and  have  noted  the  fact  that  while 
Nature  established  the  procession  of  organic  being  with 
the  four  sub-kingdoms  of  animals  nearly  abreast  of  each 
other,  the  van  of  each  was  led  by  some  of  the  weakest  and 
most  abnormal  forms  which  have  ever  appeared  within  the 
circle  of  their  respective  types. 

The  conditions  of  existence  during  the  St.  John's  and 
Potsdam  periods  must  have  been  somewhat  uniform  under 
all  meridians.  No  continents  existed  to  divert  the  tidal 
current  into  cooler  or  warmer  latitudes,  or  unequalize  the 
temperature  of  the  atmosphere  by  their  superior  power  of 
absorbing  and  radiating  heat.  The  leading  types  of  exist- 
ence were  trilobites — exhibiting  a  close  relationship  with 
each  other  on  whichever  side  of  the  world  we  exhume  their 
mummied  forms — and  some  inferior  brachiopods,  which  are 
almost  identical  in  species  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  at  Keese- 
ville,  New  York.  We  have  seen  that  the  central  portions 
i  of  the  American  continent  constituted  at  this  time  a  vast 
basin   of  shallow  water,  the  rim  of  whpch  extended  all 

E  2 


!06  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

around  the  frontier  of  the  Middle  and  Northern  States. 
In  this  magnificent  lagoon  the  Iron  Mountain  of  Missouri 
loomed  up,  as  it  now  does — an  island  of  metal — the  apex 
of  an  iron  cone,  whose  base  rests  broadly  and  deeply  on 
the  molten  ocean  which  floats  kingdoms  a*nd  continents 
from  the  past  eternity  to  the  future.  Around  its  sloping 
flanks  the  sediments  of  the  Potsdam  period  accumulated  in 
horizontal  layers,  which  to-day  may  be  witnessed  abutting 
against  the  dark  sides  of  the  emerging  cone  of  metal.  A 
few  other  isolated  points  had  thus  early  been  born  from 
the  abyss. 

In  such  a  sea — a  shoreless  sea — lived,  and  lived  in  hap- 
piness, those  problematical  forms  called  trilobites,  whose 
remains  have  been  opened  from  the  solid  rocks  of  Wis- 
consin, Vermont,  Canada,  and  hundreds  of  other  localities. 
Rather,  on  such  a  submarine  platform  they  sported  their 
day,  for  on  all  sides — certainly  toward  the  east,  south,  and 
west — the  waters  deepened,  as  now,  to  an  almost  unfath- 
omable depth,  to  whose  dark  recesses  life  never  gropes  its 
way  (Fig.  38). 

In  the  progress  of  the  earth's  preparation  this  act  of  the 
drama  closed,  and  the  curtain  fell  upon  the  scene.  "  The 
curtain  rose,  and  the  scene  was  changed."  The  beings 
which  teemed  in  the  waters  of  the  preceding  epoch  were 
buried  in  the  ruins  of  a  convulsion  which  marked  the  ad- 
vent of  a  new  aeon.  Not  an  individual  of  any  of  the  former 
species  outrode  the  storm.  But  the  sea  is  now  quiet  again 
— more  quiet  than  before.  The  waters  are  clearer.  The 
floor  of  the  ocean  has  settled  a  few  hundred  feet  deeper, 
and  the  conditions  of  our  planet  are  changed.  Lo !  now 
the  clearer  and  quieter  waters  are  teeming  with  myriads 
of  new  existences,  some  of  which  reproduce  the  family  feat- 
ures of  the  beings  of  the  preceding  period,  while  others  are. 
forms  now  first  revealed  upon  our  planet.     Whence  come 


THE  GARDEN  OF  STONE  LILIES. 


10> 


these  new  tribes  ?  A  convulsion  of  nature  shuts  them  off 
from  a  lineal  connection  with  the  generations  of  the  Pots- 
dam -period — a  convulsion  which  moulded  the  basin  of 
Lake  Superior  (Fig.  30)  and  notched  its  southern  shore 
with  Kewenaw  Point.  We  descry,  moreover,  among  these 
new  populations  forms  which  could  not  possibly  sustain 
any  genetic  relation  to  their  predecessors  in  the  line  of 
being.  These  all  are  new  creations.  There  is  no  avoiding 
the  conclusion.  The  omnific  fiat  of  the  Creator  has  again 
gone  forth,  and  swarms  of  beings  innumerable  start  from 
the  teeming  and  prolific  deep.  Encrinites  now  first  adorn 
the  flowery  chambers  of  the  sea — one  of  the  new  ideas 
just  realized  from  the  Creative 
Mind  —  flower -like,  with  slender 
stem  affixed  to  the  submarine 
soil,  a  delicate  corolla  uplifted 
on  its  extremity,  and  petals  del- 
icately fringed  expanded  to  the 
diluted  sunlight  of  the  smiling 
heavens  above,  struggling  down 
to  the  coral  meadows  on  which 
they  flourished.  And  these  were 
animals.  With .  all  their  plant-like 
form,  and  grace,  and  delicacy,  and 
attachment  to  the  soil,  these  new 

and  wonderful  creations  had  sen- 
Fig.  40.  Pentacrinns  caput-Me-      .im.,  -.      ni  -■        .         3  ,,     . 

<fusfe.  a  crinoid  living  in  the  sibihty  and  will,  and  enjoyed  their 
allotment  at  that  early  age  of  the 
world,  and  at  that  depth  beneath  the  cheerful  sunlight,  and. 
the  caressing  breeze,  and  the  vital  air,  as  the  butterfly  now, 
which  is  bor-ne  upon  the  sunbeam  from  flower  to  flower, 
and  sips  the  sweetest  nectar  from  the  fairest  creations  of 
the  vegetable  world.  All  over  the  area  of  the  Northern 
and  Western  States,  and  as  far  south  as  Alabama  and  Mis- 


108 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


sissippi,  flourished  on  the  great  submarine  plateau  luxuri- 
ant plantations  of  these  little  lily-animals.  And  these  were 
interspersed  with  other  plant-like  forms — the  coral  animals 
— which  reared  their  marble  domes  and  uplifted  their  ar- 
borescent structures  upon  the  same  soil  which  supported 
the  encrinite  and  formed  the  grazing-ground  of  tribes  of 
molluscous  beings. 

"Deep  in  the  wave  is  a  coral  grove, 
Where  the  purple  mullet  and  goldfish  rove ; 
Where  the  sea-flower  spreads  its  leaves  of  blue, 
That  never  are  wet  with  falling  dew, 
But  in  bright  and  changeful  beauty  shine, 
Far  down  in  the  green  and  grassy  brine. 
The  floor  is  of  sand,  like  the  mountain  drift, 

And  the  pearl-shells  spangle  the  flinty  snow ; 
From  coral  rocks  the  sea-plants  lift 

Their  boughs  where  the  tides  and  billows  flow ; 
******* 

While  far  below  in  the  peaceful  sea 

The-purple  mullet  and  goldfish  rove, 
Where  the  waters  murmur  tranquilly 

Through  the  bending  twigs  of  the  coral  grove." 

Here  was  beauty,  here  was  sensitive  enjoyment,  lavished 
by  Mature  upon  these  humble  forms  at  this  remote  age  of 
the  world,  and  in  these  "  dark,  unfath- 
omed  caves  of  ocean,"  with  the  same 
liberal  hand  which  adorns  the  modern 
landscape  for  the  admiration  of  intelli- 
gent man.  Here  again  were  trilobites 
— not  the  same  species  as  had  been 
swept  from  being  by  the  convulsions 
which  marked  the  close  of  the  last 
epoch— but  articulated  animals,  con- 
formed to  the  same  family  plan  and 
features  as  their  extinct  predecessors, 
yet  as  easily  distinguished  as  a  wasp 
gthe  Trenton  pelS  °    from  a  bumble-bee.     And  what,  still, 


THE  GARDEN  OF  STONE  LILIES.  109 

are  these  new  and  anomalous  forms,  which  move  their  sul- 
len and  sinister  visages  among  the  other  tribes  with  the 
mien  of  conscious  and  insolent  superiority?  Predaceous 
creatures,  they  despoil  at  a  meal  the  most  beautiful  bed  of 
encrinites,  while  the  trilobite,  alarmed,  shoots  with  a  quick 
stroke  of  his  tail  under  cover  of  some  coral  crag.  These 
are  Orthoceratites.  They  were  so  numerous  and  powerful, 
being,  withal,  the  monarchs  of  the  period,  that  we  must 
pause  to  look  into  their  family  connections. 


110  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   FAIRY   SAILOR   AND   HIS   COUSINS. 

WHO  has  not  heard  of  the  argonaut,  or  paper  nautilus? 
One  of  the  most  vivid  recollections  of  our  early  read- 
ing presents  us  with  a  little  boatman,  in  his  "  shelly  bark," 

wafted  over  the  placid  surface 
of  a  summer  sea.  With  tiny 
sail  upraised,  the  favoring 
breeze  bears  him  securely  on- 
ward ;  but  let  the  winds  escape 
from  their  iEolian  caves,  and 
the  billows  wake  from  their 
„.    .a  _.    _  ""  ~    ...     ,.         liquid     slumbers,    and     down 

Fig.  42.  The  Paper  Nautilus  {Argo-         ^  ' 

miuta  Argo).  glides  our  tiny  boatman  with 

his  shelly  bark,  and  finds  a  safe  retreat  among  the  marble 
corridors  of  the  millepores  and  the  madrepores.  Montgom- 
ery, in  his  "  Pelican  Island,"  has  thus  embalmed  the  fable : 

"  Light  as  a  flake  of  foam  upon  the  wind, 
Keel  upward,  from  the  deep  emerged  a  shell, 
Shaped  like  the  moon  ere  half  her  orb  is  filled. 
m        Fraught  with  young  life,  it  righted  as  it  rose, 
And  moved  at  will  along  the  yielding  wave. 
The  native  pilot  of  this  little  bark 
Put  out  a  tier  of  oars  on  either  side, 
Spread  to  the  wafting  breeze  a  twofold  sail, 
And  mounted  up  and  glided  down  the  billow 
In  happy  freedom,  pleased  to  feel  the  air, 
And  wonder  in  the  luxury  of  light. " 

It  seems  a  pity  to  spoil  so  pretty  a  fable,  and  one,  too, 
that  has  lived  since  the  days  of  Aristotle.  But  the  fable 
of  the  argonaut  has  been  spoiled  by  the  industry  of  a  lady. 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS   COUSINS. 


Ill 


Fig.  43.  The  Paper  Nautilus  (Argonauta  Argo)%  with 
the  arms  of  the  auimal  extended. 


Madame  Jeannette  Power,  a  French  lady  residing  in  Sicily, 
has  transmitted  to  the  learned  societies  of  Europe  accounts 
of  observations  made  by  herself  upon  the  argonaut  of 
the  Mediterranean, 
which  prove  that 
the  "native  pilot" 
is  the  rightful  and 
original  owner  of 
the  "little  bark," 
while  the  latter,  in- 
stead of  being  de- 
voted to  the  pur- 
poses of  fairy  navi- 
gation, is  but  a  coat 
of  mail  for  protec- 
tion against  ugly 
foes,  and  the  "  two- 
fold sail"  is  the  "mantle"  extended  over  the  animal's  back, 
a  secretion  from  which  forms  and  enlarges  the  shell  with 
the  growth  of  the  animal.  The  propulsive  power  of  the 
animal,  instead  of  iEolian  breezes,  is  a  jet  of  water  squirt- 
ed from  a  tube  or  "funnel,"  which,  like  a  rocket-power, 
drives  the  argonaut  backward ;  and  its  "  tier  of  oars"*  is 
used  with  the  animal  inverted,  crawling,  like  a  snail,  with 
his  house  upon  his  back. 

Something  still  more  familiar  to  every  reader  is  the 
"  cuttle-fish  bone,"  which  the  apothecary  sells  for  canaries. 
This  substance  is  not  a  "  bone,"  and  does  not  come  from  a 
"  fish,"  but  is  a  rudimentary  shell  formed  beneath  the  skin 
which  covers  the  back  of  a  molluscous  animal.  The  cala- 
maries  are  similar  to  the  cuttle-fishes,  but  their  shell  is 
horny  instead  of  stony.  The  poulp,  or  cuttle-fish  of  the 
southern  coast  of  Europe,  has  been  longest  known.  It  was 
called  "  polypus"  by  Homer  and  Aristotle,  because  it  has 


112 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


many  feet  or  arms.     The  aspect  of  all  these  animals  is 
strange  and  uncouth  (Fig.  44).     Their  staring  eyes,  their 


Fig.  44  The  Eight-armed  Cuttle-fish  (front  view). 

long  and  flexible  arms,  and  their  formidable  pair  of  sharp 
and  horny  mandibles,  combine  to  render  them  unpleasant 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS   COUSINS.         113 


Fig.  45.  Fac-simile  of  the  Commemorative  Painting  in  the  Church  of  St.  Maine, 

France. 

neighbors.     Surrounding  the  mouth  is  a  circle  of  eight 
strong  arms  many  times  the  length  of  the  body,  while 


114 


SKETCHES    OF  CREATION. 


staring  out  from  either  side  of  the  head,  between  the  bases 
of  the  arms,  is  a  pair  of  large  glassy  eyes,  which  send  a 
shudder  over  the  beholder.  At  the  bottom  of  the  sea  the 
poulp  turns  its  eight  arms  downward,  and  walks  like  a 
huge  submarine  spider,  thrusting  its  arms  into  the  crevices 
of  the  rocks,  and  extracting  thence  the  luckless  crab  that 
had  thought  itself  secure  in  its  narrow  retreat  from  the 


Fig.  46.  Section  through  the  shell  and  animal  of  the  Pearly  Nautilus 
(Natitilus  pompilius). 

attacks  of  so  bulky  a  foe.  This  is  the  "Devil  Fish"  so 
graphically  but  so  unscientifically  described  by  Victor 
Ifugo.  Each  of  the  arms  is  covered  with  what  are  called 
suckers,  designed  for  producing  adhesion  to  the  object 
grasped.  Each  sucker  consists  of  a  little,  elevated,  circu- 
lar horny  ridge,  forming  a  little  cup,  closed  at  the  bottom 
by  a  flexible  membrane  which  is  attached  to  the  arm  by  a 
stem.  The  consequence  is,  that  when  the  arm  is  pressed 
upon  an  object,  the  bottom  of  each  cup,  like  a  piston,  is 
pressed  inward  Iby  the  action  of  the  stem  or  piston-rod, 
which  is  moved  by  the  pressure  of  the  arm.  The  effort  to 
escape  from  the  grasp  of  this  arm  withdraws  the  piston 
back  to  the  bottom  of  the  cup,  thus  producing  a  vacuum 
within,  and  causing  a  suction  which  effectually  retains  the 
object.    Could  any  piece  of  mechanism  be  more  admirable  ? 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS   COUSINS. 


115 


The  poulp,  also  called  octopus  (eight-footed),  sometimes 
attains  a  formidable  size,  and  sailors  relate  terrible  stories 
of  those  found  in  the  African  seas. 
According  to  Denys  de  Montfort, 
Dens,  a  navigator,  avowed  that 
while  three  of  his  men  were  en- 
gaged in  scraping  the  side  of  the 
ship,  one  of  these  monsters  reached 
up  from  the  water  its  long  and 
flexible  arms,  and  drew  two  of  the 
men  into  the  sea.  One  was  never 
rescued,  and  the  other,  after  his  es- 
cape, became  delirious  and  died. 
This     was    probably    a    "  sailor's 


yarn, 


since   the  Frenchman   who 


narrated  it  afterward  represented 
a  "  Kraken  octopod"  in  the  act  of 
scuttling  a  three-master  (Fig.  45),    [|jj 
and  told  M.  Defrance  that,  if  this  fwt.  Fragment  of 
were  "swallowed,"  he  would,  in  his     fB$B&  BSlSTBS 
next  edition,  represent  the  monster     an™lated  central  siphon, 
embracing  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  or  capsizing  a  whole 
squadron  of  ships.     Little  reliance  as  can  be  placed  in  the 

marvelous  stories  of  "those  who 
go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships,"  it 
is  well  authenticated  that  some 
of  these  octopods  attain  fearful 
dimensions,  being  the  largest  in- 
vertebrates known.  Milne-Ed- 
wards, an  eminent  Parisian  nat- 
uralist, has  expressed  the  con- 

Fi^.48.  Trocholites   ammonius.     A   ■»«,»*;,%«      fhof     flip     nnpvnlnvprl 

coiled  -  chambered  shell  of  the  miction    tnat    tne    unexpiorea 
Trenton  period.  depths  of  the  ocean  conceal  the 

forms  of  octopods  that  far  surpass  in  magnitude  any  of 

the  species  known  to  science. 


116 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  49.  Clymenia  Sedgwickii. 


The  common  cuttle-fish  of  our  own  coast  is  a  much  more 
harmless  animal,  attaining  a  length  of  only  ten  or  twelve 

inches.  The  calamary  of 
New  York  Harbor  has 
ten  arms,  two  of  which 
are  much  longer  than 
the  others. 

The  reader  is  proba- 
bly familiar  with  the  se- 
pia used  in  tinting  with 
water-colors.  This  is  the 
ink  of  the  cuttle-fish  and 
its  allies.  It  is  preserved 
by  the  animal  in  a  little 
bag,  from  which  it  is  ejected  on  the  approach  of  danger, 
thus  producing  a  cloud,  under  cover  of  which  the  animal 
escapes.  Here  is  the  prototype  of  the  fog  which  sophistry 
raises,  and  under  cover  of  which  it  retreats,  when  finding 
itself  in  unequal  conflict  with  truth.  India  ink,  it  has  been 
stated,  is 'manufactured  by  the  Chinese  from  the  same  sub- 
stance, though  it  is  probable 
they  employ  only  lampblack 
and  glue,  or  vegetable  gum. 
The  ink-bags  of  some  ancient 
cuttle-fishes  have  been  found 
in  a  fossil  state.  Dr.  Buck- 
land  had  drawings  of  extinct 
species  executed  in  their  own 
ink. 

These  all  are  cephalopods,  the  first  class  among  mol- 
luscs, the  aristocracy  of  shellfish,  often  exercising  domin- 
ion over  beings  with  higher  intelligence,  but  a  weaker  arm, 
just  as  brawny  force  has  always  done.  But  the  forms  de- 
scribed belong  to  the  highest  of  the  two  orders  of  the  class. 


Fig.  50.  Goniiitites  Allei  (from  the 
Marshall  Group,  Michigan). 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS  COUSINS. 


117 


None,  save  the  "  paper  nautilus,"  have  had  external  shells. 
The  animals  of  the  lower  order  are  incased  in  shells  which 
are  long,  tapering  tabes,  divided  at  regular  intervals  by 
transverse  partitions.  The  paper  nautilus  and  his  allies 
have  all  lived  in  a  later  age  of  the 
world  than  that  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking.  The  "-pearly  nautilus"  is  the 
only  living  representative  of  the  lower 
order — an  order  which  swarmed  in  the 
seas  of  the  Paleozoic  and  Mesozoic 
Times.  The  pearly  nautilus  is  closely 
coiled  (Fig.  46) ;  its  shell  is  divided  at 
frequent  intervals  by  smooth  partitions 
concave  anteriorly,  the  animal  occupy- 
ing only  the  space  in  front  of  the  last 
one.  A  shelly  tube  runs  through  the 
middle  of  all  these  chambers  to  the  far- 
ther extremity  of  the  shell.  .Through 
this  a  ligament  passes  from  the  body  of 
the-  animal,  and  anchors  it  securely  in 
the  last  chamber.  This  tube  is  called 
the  siphon.  Such  is  the  structure  of 
the  pearly  nautilus,  which  may  be  seen 
in  myriads,  on  a  calm  day,  floating  on 
the  surface  of  the  waters  of  the  South 
Pacific. 

The  reader  will  certainly  thank  me  for  introducing  here 
a  beautiful  poem  on  "  the  Chambered  Nautilus,"  though  the 
author  has  committed  the  error  of  supposing  it  was  this 
species  of  nautilus  to  which  the  Aristotelian  fable  of  the 
fairy  sailor  applied. 


51.  Fragment  of 
Straight-  chambered 
Shell  (Baculites  ovatus) 
of  Mesozoic  Time,  be- 
longing to  the  Ammon- 
ite Family. 


This  is  the  ship  of  pearl,  which,  poets  feign, 
Sails  the  unshadowed  main — 
The  venturous  bark  that  flings 


118  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

On  the  sweet  summer  wind  its  purple  wings, 
In  gulfs  enchanted,  where  the  siren  sings, 

And  coral  reefs  lie  bare, 
Where  the  cold  sea-maids  rise  to  sun  their  streaming  hair. 

"Its  webs  of  living  gauze  no  more  unfurl ; 

Wrecked  is  the  ship  of  pearl ! 

And  every  chambered  cell, 
Where  its  dim  dreaming  life  was  wont  to  dwell, 
As  the  frail  tenant  shaped  his  growing  shell, 

Before  thee  lies  revealed — 
Its  irised  ceiling  rent,  its  sunless  crypt  unsealed ! 

"  Year  after  year  beheld  the  silent  toil 

That  spread  his  lustrous  coil ; 

Still,  as  the  spiral  grew, 
He  left  the  past  year's  dwelling  for  the  new, 
Stole,  with  soft  step,  its  shining  archway  through, 

Built  up  its  idle  door, 
Stretched  in  his  last  found  home,  and  knew  the  old  no  more. 

"  Thanks  for  the  heavenly  message  brought  by  thee, 

Child  of  the  wandering  sea, 

Cast  from  her  lap  forlorn  ! 
From  thy  dead  lips  a  clearer  note  is  born 
Than  ever  Triton  blew  from  wreathed  horn ! 

Wliile  on  my  ear  it  rings, 
Through  the  deep  caves  of  thought  I  hear  a  voice  that  sings ; 

' '  Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  oh,  my  soul, 

As  the  swift  seasons  roll ! 

Leave  thy  low- vaulted  past ! 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free", 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea!" 

The  "  pearly  nautilus"  exemplifies  the  structure  tff  a 
"  chambered  shell."  Such  shells  in  their  endless  variations 
played  a  most  conspicuous  part  in  the  history  of  ancient 
life,  though  one  genus  alone  survives  to  recite  the  glory 
and  illustrate  the  economy  of  his  cephalopodous  ancestors. 
The  variable  elements  in  the  shell  are  the  form  of  the  sep- 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS   COUSINS.        H9 


turn,  the  position  of  the  siphon,  and  the  plan  of  enrollment. 
The  septum  may  be  plain,  or  angulated,  or  lobed,  or  folia- 
ted around  its  outer  margin.  The  siphon  may  be  external, 
or  internal,  or  central.  The  enrollment  may  be  close,  loose, 
half-coiled,  arcuate,  or  straight.  Of  how  many  combina- 
tions, three  in  a  set,  do  these  characters  admit !  And  yet 
almost  every  possible  combination  has  been  realized  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  In  the  earliest  periods  were  the  spe- 
cies with  simple  septa  and  straight 
shells  (orthoceratites,Fig.  47) ;  next 
came  those  with  simple  septa  and 
coiled  shells  (Nautili,  Fig.  48); 
then  those  with  angulated  septa 
and  coiled  shells  (Clymenia,Fig. 
49) ;  then  those  with  lobed  septa 
and  coiled  shells  ( Goniatites,  Fig. 
50) ;  lastly  appeared  those  with  fo- 
liated or  very  complicated  septa, 
with  their  straight  (Baculites,  Fig. 
51),  arcuate  (Hamites),  closely 
(Ammonites,  Fig.  52),  and  variously  coiled  forms.  So  we 
see  that  in  the  various  ages  of  the  world,  some  type  of 
"chambered  shells"  has   constituted  a  leading  character- 


Fig.  52.  Ammonites  canalicula- 
tus.  A  chambered  shell  of 
the  Mesozoic  Ages. 


Pig.  53.  Plans  of  Septa  among  different  families  of  Chambered  Shells. 

a.  Septum  in  Nautilus  family,    b.  Septum  in  Clymenia  family,    c.  Septum  in 

Goniatite  family  {Goniatites  Marshallensis).    d.  Septum  in  Ammonite  family. 


120 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


istic  of  the  marine  fauna.     One  thing  which  is  very  re- 
markable is  the  fact  that  the  existing  pearly  nautilus  is 

closely  related  to  the 
most  ancient  forms  —  a 
specimen  creature  of  pri- 
meval times — the  key  to 
the  inscriptions  on  the  pre- 
adamite  rocks.  The  ortho- 
ceratites  were  nautili  with 
straight  shells.  They  were 
the  "carnivora"  of  the  sea. 
They  often  attained  to  for- 
midable dimensions.  I 
have  found  remains  of  in- 
dividuals on  St.  Joseph's 
Island,  in  Lake  Huron, 
which  were  twelve  feet  in 
length.  A  reliable  gentle- 
man of  Utica,  New  York, 
informed  me  that  he  had 
traced  one  in  the  "  Black 
River  Limestone"  to  the 
distance  of  thirty-two  feet! 
Imagine  a  hollow  cone  of 
limestone,  of  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  "  saw-log,"  ani- 
mated, with  a  "Kraken 
octopod"  ensconced  in  the 
open  end,  staring  with 
glassy,  sinister  eyes  to  the 
right  and  left,  and  numer- 
ous slimy,  muscular,  insin- 
uating arms  feeling  in  ev- 
ery direction  for  their  prey. 


THE  FAIRY  SAILOR  AND  HIS   COUSINS.       121 

Is  not  this  an  enemy  from  which  the  lesser  tenants  of  the 
deep  would  flee  without  pausing  to  raise  the  question  of 
supremacy  ?  These  monsters  maintained  the  ascendency 
till  the  introduction  of  fishes,  toward  the  close  of  the  Upper 
Silurian,  or  later.  Their  decline  dates  from  this  epoch ;  and 
when  the  voracious  fishes  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  and 
the  Carboniferous  Limestone  came  upon  the  stage  of  being, 
the  orthoceratites  dwindled  away.  Their  last  representa- 
tives barely  saw  the  rising  of  Mesozoic  Time.  Not  a  trace 
of  a  straight  plain-chambered  shell  has  been  found  in  any 
of  the  rocks  above  the  Trias.  They  fulfilled  their  end  in 
creation  and  retired.  Other  carnivorous  animals  of  a  high- 
er order  were  better  adapted  to  the  advancing  state  of  the 
earth's  preparation.  Garpikes  appeared.  A  new  dynasty 
arose,  to  be  in  turn  overthrown  by  the  dynasty  of  the  Me- 
sozoic reptiles. 

F 


122  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ONWARD   THROUGH   THE    AGES. 

THE  evening  shades  of  one  of  eternity's  aeons  are  gath- 
ering around  us.  The  darkness  upon  which  we  are 
entering  is  the  gloom  of  a  tempest  and  the  night  of  death 
to  the  teeming  populations  of  the  globe.  A  throe  of  Nature 
heaves  still  higher  the  germinal  ridges  of  the  continent, 
robs  the  ocean  of  another  strip  of  his  domain,  and  seals  up 
the  record  of  the  life  of  the  Lower  Silurian. 

The  elevation  which  marked  the  close  of  this  great  inter- 
val of  terrestrial  history  brought  to  light  the  basin  of  Lake 
Superior,  Northern  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota,  the  northern 
and  eastern  portions  of  New  York,  and  considerable  por- 
tions of  New  England.  The  line  of  sea-coast  passed  west- 
ward through  Central  New  York,  along  the  bed  of  the 
future  Lake  Ontario,  thence  northwestward  to  Georgian 
Bay,  following  the  trend  of  the  future  Lake  Huron,  sweep- 
ing round  by  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  arching  downward 
again  through  Wisconsin  along  a  line  a  few  miles  west  of 
the  present  Lake  Michigan.  Thence  it  swept  westward 
and  northwestward  in  the  direction  of  Lake  Winnipeg  a$d 
the  Arctic  Sea.  All  to  the  south  of  this  line  was  yet  the 
empire  of  the  Atlantic.  On  those  vast  submarine  plains 
the  Pacific  joined  hands  with  the  Atlantic,  and  the  two 
sang  dirges  over  the  land  that  was  to  become  the  scene 
of  fraternal  conflict. 

It  might  weary  the  casual  reader  of  geological  history 
to  recite  the  details  of  the  periods  which  follow.  What 
has  been  narrated  of  the  birth  and  death  of  populations 


ON  WA RD   THR  OUGH  THE  A  G ES. 


123 


<v 


Fig.  55.  What  the  North  Amer'crn  Continent  had  hecome  at  the  end  of  the 
Silurian  Age.  (The  modern  continent  is  indicated  by  dotted  lines;  the 
rivers  by  broken  lines.) 

during  the  Lower  Silurian  Age  will  answer  for  a  represen- 
tation of  the  nature  of  the  events  which  followed  during 
the  Upper  Silurian  and  Devonian  ages.  Successive  extinc- 
tions, wrought  by  the  lapse  of  time,  or  by  violent  geological 
revolutions,  followed  by  successive  creations  of  higher  and 
higher  forms,  and  the  annexation  of  successive  belts  to  the 
pre-existing  land — these  constituted  the  great  secular  feat- 
ures of  the  world's  history  down  to  the  dawn  of  the  period 
when  air-breathing  animals  were  to  have  birth  (Fig.  56). 

The  first  period  of  the  Upper  Silurian  was  that  during 
which  the  Niagara  limestone  was  accumulated — a  forma- 


124  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  56.  A  remarkable  Silurian  Sea- weed  (Arthrophycus  Harlanf).    From  the 
Medina  Sandstone  of  the  Niagara  Group. 

tion  through  which,  with  others,  the  Niagara  River  has  cut 
its  way.  In  another  connection  I  shall  have  something 
farther  to  say  in  reference  to  this  stupendous  piece  of 
Nature's  engineering.  From  the  falls  of  Niagara  the  out- 
cropping belt  of  this  limestone  runs  in  lines  parallel  with 
those  just  traced.  It  forms  the  promontory  of  Cabot's 
Head,  and  the  peninsula  separating  Georgian  Bay  from 
Lake  Huron.  At  this  point  the  formation  has  succumbed 
to  the  attacks  of  the  waves,  and  disappears  in  its  north- 
westward trend  beneath  the  water  of  the  lake.  Cropping 
out  again,  it  forms  the  remarkable  chain  of  the  Manitoulin 
Islands,  in  the  northern  part  of  Lake  Huron,  including 
Drummond's  Island.  Beyond  St.  Mary's  River  it  forms  a 
"  point"  and  a  peninsula,  the  counterparts  of  Cabot's  Head 
and  the  peninsula  to  the  south  of  it.  Running  westward, 
and  then  south  westward,  it  establishes  a  continuous  barrier 
to  Lake  Michigan  along  the  northern  and  western  borders, 
constituting  the  rocky  ridge  which  isolates  Green  Bay. 
and  Bay  de  Noquet  from  the  greater  lake.     It  follows  the 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES.  125 

shore  of  Lake  Michigan  to  Chicago,  and  even  to  Joliet, 
when  it  bends  westward  and  northwestward,  and  loses 
itself  beneath  the  accumulations  of  a  later  period.  The 
quarries  at  Lockport,  New  York,  and  many  others  in  that 
vicinity,  are  located  in  this  important  limestone.  In  the 
same  formation  are  those  at  Milwaukee,  Waukesha,  Chi- 
cago, Lamont,  and  Joliet.  The  so-called  "Athens  Marble," 
so  extensively  employed  in  Chicago,  is  quarried  from  this 
formation.  It  much  resembles  the  famous  "  Kentucky  Mar- 
ble," from  which  the  beautiful  monument  and  statue  to 
Henry  Clay,  at  Lexington,  is  built — though  the  latter  comes 
from  the  Trenton  group,  in  the  Lower  Silurian. 

The  second  period  was  that  of  the  Salina  group,  which 
has  become  famous  for  the  production  of  salt  and  gypsum, 
in  the  vicinity  of  Syracuse,  New  York.  Its  outcropping 
belt  runs  in  a  line  parallel  with  that  of  the  Niagara  lime- 
stone throughout  its  whole  course,  as  far  as  Milwaukee.  I 
shall  hereafter  offer  some  explanation  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  salt  and  gypsum  have  accumulated  to  such 
an  enormous  extent  in  certain  formations. 

The  third  period  was  that  of  the  Lower  Helderberg 
group,  which  is  not  found  to  be  generally  spread  out  over 
the  country  like  the  other  two.  In  New  York  it  is  espe- 
cially developed  in  the  Helderberg  Mountains,  where  Pro- 
fessor Hall  has  obtained  a  rich  harvest  of  organic  remains. 
It  was  here  that  he  found  the  type  of  that  magnificent 
crinoid,  which  he  so  beautifully  named  Mariacrinus,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  assistance  and  sympathy  of  his  accom- 
plished wife  in  his  life-long  scientific  labors.  It  thins  out 
and  disappears  in  Western  New  York.  This  group  is  known 
a^ain  in  Southern  Illinois,  where  it  has  been  brought  to 
light  by  the  indefatigable  and  well-directed  labors  of  Pro- 
fessor Worthen  ;  and  in  Missouri,  where  it  has  been  illus- 
trated by  Swallow  and  Shumard;   and,  finally,  in  Maine, 


126  SKETCHES  OF  CMEATION. 

where  it  has  been  studied  by  Professor  C.  H.  Hitchcock,  and 
Mr.  Billings,  of  Montreal. 

Thus  closed  the  Silurian  Age.  At  the  east  the  rocks  of 
this  age  are  marked  off  from  the  great  mass  of  overlying 
Devonian  strata  by  the  interposition  of  a  conglomerate — 
the  "  Oriskany  Sandstone,"  which  signalizes  the  confusion 
attendant  upon  the  change  of  scene.  At  the  West,  how- 
ever, this  formation  is  generally  wanting ;  and  we  find  the 
limestones  of  the  Corniferous  group  resting  upon  those  of 
the  Niagara  group,  except  where  the  Salina  rocks  inter- 
vene. The  Corniferous  is  a  most  important  limestone  mass 
throughout  the  West.  It  merges  generally  into  the  cal- 
careous portion  of  the  overlying  "Hamilton"  strata,  and 
forms  a  landmark  in  the  topography  of  the  country  no  less 
than  in  the  series  of  rocks.  In  this  limestone,  quarries  are 
worked  from  Western  New  York,  in  the  latitude  of  Buffalo, 
through  the  contiguous  peninsula  of  Canada  to  Sandusky 
and  Columbus,  Ohio,  Monroe  and  Mackinac,  Michigan,  and 
multitudes  of  points  in  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa.  These 
limestones,  like  all  others,  were  accumulated  in  the  bottom 
of  deep  and  quiet  seas.  Each  successive  floor  has  been  the 
home  of  moving  myriads  of  sensitive  forms.  Every  layer 
of  rocks  has  been  the  cemetery  of  many  generations.  Life 
teemed  especially  in  calcareous  and  placid  waters.  Such 
were  those  of  the  Corniferous  period ;  and  these  limestones 
are  stocked  with  the  relics  of  ancient  dynasties — great  and 
small,  powerful  and  weak,  in  one  wide  burial  confusedly 
blent.  Nor  yet  had  nature  dispensed  with  the  pattern  of 
the  trilobites.  Encrinites  were  still  in  vogue,  and  ortho- 
ceratites,  and  all  the  various  phases  of  univalve  and  bivalve 
creation.  And  here — here  first  dawned  upon  our  planet  an 
animal  with  a  backbone — a  mere  fish,  but  yet  the  basis  on 
which  artist  Nature  has  moulded  successive  models  till  the 
form  of  man  shone  forth,  and  the  Omniscient  was  satisfied 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES.  127 

to  stay  his  hand.  But  man  was  not  yet.  Ichthyic  life 
seems  to  have  dawned  upon  our  earth  in  remarkable  pro- 
fuseness.  Tne  bones,  and  plates,  and  jaws,  and  teeth  of 
fishes*large  and  small  have  been  cleft  from  the  Corniferous 
limestone  in  Canada,  Michigan,  and  Ohio.  Our  first  au- 
thentic information  of  these  earliest  vertebrates  came  from 
Dr.  J.  S.  Newberry — equally  distinguished  in  the  service  of 
science  and  his  country — and  who  has  very  recently  worked 
up  a  wonderful  collection  of  Devonian  fishes,  created  main- 
ly by  the  intelligent  industry  of  a  German  Methodist  min- 
ister, Rev.  Herman  Herzer,  while  discharging  the  duties  of 
his  ministry  at  Delaware,  Ohio.  These  ancient  fishes  were 
only  the  av ant-couriers  of  the  shoals  of  sharks,  and  stur- 
geons, and  garpikes  which  made  a  Golgotha  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone. 

The  closing  convulsions  of  this  epoch  upheaved  still 
higher  the  growing  continent,  and  depopulated  the  coral 
cities  of  the  sea  that  had  just  been  astir  with  being.  A 
pause,  and  another  epoch — the  Hamilton  epoch — followed, 
a  period  characterized  by  its  abundance  of  argillaceous 
sediments,  and  by  two  masses  of  black  bituminous  shale — 
the  "  Marcellus"  at  the  bottom,  and  the  "  Genesee"  at  the 
top,  with  the  more  calcareous  strata  between.  The  ab- 
sence of  the  ".Marcellus"  at  the  West  has  dropped  the  lime- 
stones of  this  group  upon  the  top  of  the  Corniferous  lime- 
stone, and  formed  the  appearance  of  but  a  single  mass. 
This  is  clearly  seen  in  the  extensive  quarries  upon  the  isl- 
ands in  the  western  part  of  Lake  Erie.  Indeed,  the  absence 
of  the  "  Oriskany"  at  the  West  has  brought  the  calcareous 
portions  of  four  groups  of  rocks  into  immediate  juxtaposi- 
tion. These  are  the  Niagara,  the  Salina,  the  Corniferous, 
and  the  Hamilton.  Before  these  groups  were  correctly  dis- 
criminated, the  entire  mass  was  known  in  the  West  as  the 
"  Cliff  Limestone."     No  epoch  of  the  world's  history  ever 


128  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

witnessed  a  greater  profusion  of  life  than  the  Hamilton. 
The  germs  of  being  were  thickly  strewn  over  every  part 
of  the  ocean's  floor.  Chambered  shells  were  on  the  wane ; 
but  Brachiopods  and  new  forms  of  corals  sprang  forth  in 
exuberant  growth,  and  we  pick  their  fossil  forms  to-day, 
like  nuts,  from  the  dried  ocean  mud. 

Another  aeon  passes ;  the  empire  of  the  sea  crumbles  be- 
fore the  conquest  of  the  land,  and  we  add  next  the  belt  of 
the  "Chemung  group"  to  the  growing  margins  of  the  land. 
Toward  the  west  the  bottom  of  the  sea  experiences  at  this 
time  but  little  change  of  level,  and  the  Chemung  sediments 
abide  another  epoch  to  receive  upon  their  backs  the  sands 
and  mud  of  the  "  Waverly  group  ;"  eastward,  however, 
new  land  is  made  by  an  extensive  uplift  of  the  sea  bottom. 
Thus  the  Empire  State  is  almost  completed;  Wisconsin 
has  taken  her  place ;  the  centre  of  Michigan  is  occupied  by 
an  inland  sea.  The  great  ocean  washes  the  southeastern 
shores  of  Ohio,  and  wild  waves  career  over  the  future  plan- 
tations of  the  prairie  farmer  in  Illinois.  Some  parts  of 
Eastern  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  and  Arkansas,  and  Northern 
Texas  begin  to  emerge,  but  the  boundless  waste  of  Pacific 
waters  is  still  at  work  upon  the  materials  of  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska,  and  the  regions  beyond. 

Among  the  accumulated  treasures  of  this  epoch,  behold 
the  first  vestiges  of  an  arborescent  vegetation  !  All  before 
this  had  been  fucoidal  in  its  characters.  Here  we  find,  im- 
bedded in  the  friable  sandstone,  some  stems  of  trees — pieces 
of  drift-wood  floated  from  some  neighboring  shore,  and,  like 
the  dove  of  Noah,  bearing  us  tales  of  the  vegetation  upon 
the  land.  The  sandstones  of  Southern  New  York  inclose 
such  records  of  the  vegetal  life  of  the  Chemung.  Corre- 
sponding sandstones  in  the  distant  peninsula  of  Gaspe, 
Canada  East,  have  been  constrained  to  yield  similar  testi- 
mony from  their  locked  and  ancient  archives — thanks  to 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES.  129 

the  diligence  and  learning  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Dawson,  of  M'Gill 
College,  Montreal.  How  sparse  and  desolate  must  have 
been  those  forests  !  No  voice  of  animated  nature  was  yet 
heard  among  those  scattered  pigmy  trees.  They  are  ar- 
borescent ferns  and  lycopodiums — a  new  idea  incorporated 
in  vegetal  existence — but  how  prophetic  of  that  which  is 
to  come  !  Nature  always  issues  her  bulletins.  We  stand 
now  in  an  age  of  the  world  which  antedates  the  advent  of 
all  our  familiar  forms,  and  read  the  announcement  of  the 
coming  riches  of  the  Carboniferous  era.  A  stranded  loo* 
of  drift-wood  becomes  eloquent  in  the  utterance  of  pro- 
phetic truth. 

Another  age  passed  which  the  scientific  world  hesitates 
to  attach  to  the  future  or  the  past.  Is  it  Devonian  or  Car- 
boniferous ?  Throughout  the  West  the  sediments  of  this 
age  gave  rise  to  a  noticeable  formation  which  has  been 
styled  the  Marshall  group,  because  the  characteristic  rocks 
and  fossils  of  the  period  may  be  studied  at  Marshall,  in 
Michigan.  This  is  the  rock  so  extensively  worked  in  the 
vicinity  of  Cleveland,  and  at  Waverly,  Ohio.  It  furnish- 
es the  excellent  grindstones  of  Berea,  and  those  known  as 
Huron  grindstones  in  Michigan.  It  is  the  greenish  or  red- 
dish-yellow sandstone  occurring  in  Southern  Michigan,  and 
trending  northward  into  the  bight  of  the  coast  which  sep- 
arates Saginaw  Bay  from  Lake  Huron.  It  underlies  the 
limestone  bluff  at  Burlington,  in  Iowa,  and  makes  itself 
known  at  numerous  localities  throughout  the  northwestern 
states.  In  New  York,  it  is  perhaps  the  formation  corre- 
sponding to  this  which  caps  the  Catskill  Mountains,  and 
has  hence  been  styled  the  Catskill  group.  It  covers  a  large 
area  in  Northeastern  Pennsylvania.  In  this  formation, 
throughout  its  wide  extent,  are  found  the  scales  and  teeth 
of  fishes,  which  recall  the  relics  studied  by  Hugh  Miller  in 
the  quarries  of  Cromarty,  and  hence  we  have  been  inclined 

F  2 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES.  131 

to  believe  that  it  belongs  to  the  same  age  of  the  world. 
But  the  "  Old  Red  Sandstone"  of  Miller  is  generally  parti- 
tioned off  with  Devonian  strata,  while  the  western  beds 
of  the  American  formation  abound  in  relics  which  recall 
the  life  and  times  of  Carboniferous  populations.  Indeed, 
though  some  excellent  authorities  persist  in  pronouncing 
the  Marshall  and  Waver! y  rocks  as  belonging  to  the  De- 
vonian age,  there  is  not  a  Western  geologist  who  does  not 
believe  them  Carboniferous.  I  have  myself  had  the  good 
fortune  to  study  the  fossil  remains  of  this  age,  gathered 
from  all  the  Western  States  by  my  own  hands,  and  to  com- 
pare them  with  fossils  gathered  from  the  Carboniferous 
rocks  of  Europe,  and  also  with  fossils  from  the  Catskill 
sandstone  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  I  have  but 
little  hesitation  in  asserting  that  the  rocks  called  Marshall 
and  Catskill  were  both  deposited  during  the  period  of  the 
"  Mountain  Limestone"  of  Europe,  which  lies  at  <ov  near  the 
base  of  the  great  Carboniferous  system. 

If,  then,  the  Catskill  sandstone  be  the  base  of  the  Car- 
boniferous system  in  America,  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of 
Scotland,  which  has  been  identified  in  age,  must  be,  con- 
trary to  the  prevailing  opinion,  the  base  of  the  Carbonifer- 
ous system  in  that  country.  In  North  America,  the  sedi- 
ments of  this  period  were  derived  from  the  wear  of  ocean 
shores  lying  toward  the  northeast  of  the  United  States. 
The  coarser  materials  were  deposited  near  their  source, 
while  the  finer  were  distributed  over  the  centre  of  the  con- 
tinent. Thus  the  formation,  which  is  a  conglomerate  or 
coarse  sandstone  in  New  York  and  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Huron,  is  a  fine  sandstone  in  Southern  Michigan,  in  Ohio, 
and  Iowa,  and  an  arenaceous  or  argillaceous  limestone  in 
Southern  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri.  In  the  Old  World 
during  the  same  period,  the  coarse  sediments  gave  rise  to 
the  sandstone  of  Scotland,  while  in  Yorkshire,  Belgium,  and 


132  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

oth,er  southern  regions  more  remote  from  the  northern 
source  of  the  sediments  the  rocks  of  the  age  are  represent- 
ed by  the  "Mountain  Limestone."  [See  Appendix,  Note 
IV.] 

I  am  here  led  to  direct  the  reader's  attention  to  an  im- 
portant law  which  has  governed  the  distribution  of  sedi- 
ments in  all  the  periods  of  American  paleozoic  history. 
The  continent,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  always  toward 
the  north.  Soundings  in  the  North  Atlantic  indicate  that 
the  actual  foundations  of  the  continent  extend  northeast- 
ward beneath  the  water  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  exist- 
ing land.  Far  back  in  the  antiquity  of  our  continent  the 
Labrador  branch  possessed  an  extent  which  no  longer  ap- 
pears. It  projected  itself  in  that  direction  almost  to  mid- 
ocean.  It  has  been  eaten  up  by  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic. 
The  bones  of  the  continent  lie  scattered  along  from  the 
"  Grand  Banks"  to  Maine.  Newfoundland,  Cape  Breton, 
Nova  Scotia,  and  the  numberless  islands  and  peninsulas  of 
the  northeast  coast,  are  the  remnants  of  the  meal  which 
old  Ocean  has  made  of  the  right  wing  of  America.  Out 
of  the  wasted  continent  of  paleozoic  times  the  agencies  of 
Nature  have  built  up  the  substructures  of  the  Northern 
United  States.  All  the  strata  to  which  I  have  referred 
were  formed  of  the  ruins  of  rocks  that  had  long  before 
been  dry  land.  Thus  the  materials  came  from  the  north- 
east. And  thus  it  happens  that  every  formation  is  coarser 
in  that  direction,  and  finer  toward  the  centre  of  the  conti- 
nent. Thus  even  the  age  which  witnessed  the  accumula- 
tion of  pebbles  or  sand  at  the  East,  witnessed  the  deposi- 
tion of  a  fine  calcareous  mud  in  the  deeper,  quieter  waters 
which  rested  over  the  Mississippi  Valley  (compare  Fig.  15). 

Another  thought  introduces  itself  into  the  company  of 
this  one.  It  is  the  law  of  the  secular  recurrence  of  iden- 
tical lithological  conditions.     This  law  attracted  my  atten- 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES.  133 

tion  many  years  ago,  but  I  believe  no  one  has  distinctly 
enunciated  it  except  that  admirable  geologist,  Dr.  Dawson, 
of  Montreal.  Geological  time  has  been  marked  off  into 
Ages,  Periods,  and  Epochs  by  physical  revolutions.  These 
were  universal  for  the  Ages,  but  more  local  for  the  subor- 
dinate divisions  of  time.  The  commencement  of  eveor  in- 
terval of  time  was  characterized,  to  some  extent,  by  disrup- 
tions, upheavals,  violence,  emission  of  heat  and  vapors  from 
beneath  the  crust,  violent  dashing  of  waters  against  coast- 
barriers,  destructive  ocean  tides  and  streams,  and  the  more 
or  less  complete  extinction  of  living  beings.  Simultane- 
ously, therefore,  with  the  disappearance  of  a  fauna  from  the 
earth,  the  ocean's  bottom  was  overstrewn  with  the  coarse 
debris  of  a  geological  revolution.  As  the  shaken  crust  sub- 
sided to  a  more  quiet  position,  only  the  finer  sediments 
were  transported  to  great  distances  from  the  shores.  Last- 
ly, when  peace  and  stability  were  again  restored,  the  vast 
expanse  of  the  ocean,  as  it  floated  over  the  area  of  North 
America,  was  a  calm  and  clear  lagoon,  in  which  lived  and 
labored  those  lime-loving  animals  which  incase  themselves 
in  shells,  found  coral  structures,  and  eliminate  from  the 
w^ater  the  materials  of  limestone  strata.  There  is,  conse- 
quently, for  each  period  of  the  world's  history  a  definite 
succession  of  strata  as  to  kind.  These  may  be  designated 
Coarse-fragmental,  Fine-fragmental,  and  Calcareous.  The 
Coarse-fragmental  we  style  conglomerates,  and  their  posi- 
tion is  at  the  bottom  of  a  group  of  strata.  The  Fine-frag- 
mental vary  from  sandstones  to  shales,  and  they  rest  upon 
the  conglomerates.  The  Calcareous  constitute  the  lime- 
stones which  answer  to  the  culmination  of  a  geological  in- 
terval, and  rest  near  the  top  of  the  group.  The  life  of  each 
interval  attained  its  full  expansion  during  the  Calcareous 
epoch.  Toward  the  close  of  this  epoch  the  waters  of  the 
sea  began  again  to  be  turbid,  from  the  premonitory  jarrings 


134 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


which  were  soon  to  be  followed  by  a  more  or  less  general 
disruption.  We  may  generally  distinguish,  therefore,  some 
calcareous  shales  constituting  the  uppermost  beds  of  a 
group ;  and,  in  rare  instances,  the  disturbance  proceeded 
so  far  before  the  extinction  of  the  faunas  that  the  upper- 
most beds  have  been  rendered  finely  fragmental.  To  illus- 
trate and  confirm  these  generalizations,  I  introduce  the  fol- 
lowing table: 


1     Coarse-fragmental. 

Fine-fragmental. 

Calcareous. 

Calcareo-fraginental. 

2z 

Potsdam  sand- 
stone. 

Calciferous  and 
Chazy  formations. 

Trenton  Group. 

Cincinnati  Group. 

II 

Oneida  conglom- 
erate. 
Medina  sand- 
stone. 

Clinton  Group. 
Niagara  shale. 

Niagara  lime- 
stone. 

Salina  Group. 

Oriskany  sand- 
stone. 

Schoharie  Grit 

Corniferous  lime- 
stone. 

Hamilton  Group, 
followed  by  Che- 
mung. 

li 

Waverly  sand- 
stone 
(Marshall  phase). 

Waverly  sand- 
stone 
(Chouteau  phase). 

Mountain  lime- 
stone. 

False  coal-meas- 
ures. 

ti 

t>«„^„  ™~,.i~™   1     Coal-measures 
FarmLTt»S l0m"| (broken  into  many 
eraie.                ghort  epoctls)# 

Laramie  lime- 
stone. 

Permian  Group. 

In  this  exhibit  I  take  no  account  of  the  St.  John's  Group, 
since  we  know  so  little  of  its  lithological  characters.  It 
thus  appears  that  the  recognized  succession  of  strata  in 
each  of  the  great  divisions  of  Paleozoic  time  is  wonderful- 
ly similar  in  lithological  characters.  In  each  great  group 
is  a  great  limestone  mass,  which  stands  out  conspicuously 
in  the  geology  of  the  region  underlaid  by  the  group.  These 
limestone  masses  are  prominent  landmarks  in  the  progress 
of  the  ages.  They  mark  the  successive  culminations  of  the 
geological  periods.  Each  mass  outcrops  in  a  protruding 
belt,  sweeping  from  east  to  west  over  a  wide  extent  of 
country.  The  oldest  is  the  more  northern,  and  the  others 
follow  in  regular  succession.  The  Trenton  mass  sweeps 
across  along  the  north  of  Lake  Ontario  and  to  Georgian 
Bay.     The  Niagara  mass  lies  to  the  south  of  Lake  Ontario 


136  SKETCHES   OF  C  BE  AT  ION. 

and  the  south  of  Georgian  Bay.  The  Corniferous  is  north 
of  Lake  Erie  and  beneath  Lake  Huron.  The  Mountain 
limestone  is  farther  toward  the  centre  of  the  continent,  in 
the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  Laramie  limestone  stretches 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  If  the  reader  "can  fix  his  imag- 
ination on  each  of  these  great  limestone  belts,  he  has  a  clew 
to  a  mental  map  of  the  geology  of  the  country. 

In  the  little  map  on  the  preceding  page  I  have  endeav- 
ored to  indicate  the  locations  of  the  great  limestone  masses 
just  alluded  to  (except  the  Laramie  limestone,  which  is  too 
far  west).  The  horizontal  shading  shows  the  trend  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  mass,  which,  in  Ohio  and  farther  west,  is 
not  discriminated  from  the  Cincinnati  Group.  Its  pro- 
longation into  Wisconsin  is  covered  up  with  surface  sands 
and  clays.  The  vertical  shading  indicates  the  trend  of  the 
Upper  Silurian  mass,  which  is  also  lost  in  Wisconsin.  In 
Ohio  it  probably  exists  in  a  belt  encircling  the  Lower  Si- 
lurian area,  but  it  has  not  yet  been  completely  traced  out. 
The  oblique  shading  from  right  to  left  denotes  the  great 
Devonian  mass  (corniferous  limestone),  which  has  not  yet 
been  distinctly  traced  beyond  Lake  Michigan.  The  ob- 
lique shading  from  left  to  right  is  the  Mountain  lime- 
stone, or  Lower  Carboniferous  mass,  which  I  have  pro- 
posed to  designate  the  Mississippi  Group,  because  so  ex- 
tensively developed  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
Now,  if  the  reader  desires  to  know  to  what  particular  for- 
mation any  proposed  limestone  quarry  belongs,  this  little 
map  will  inform  him.  The  letter  C  indicates  the  areas 
which  are  underlaid  by  the  coal-measures  of  the  country. 
In  the  Northern  States  these  are  the  uppermost  strata  of 
solid  rock.  Hence  all  other  formations  dip  toward  the 
nearest  coal-measures,  and  generally  pass  under  them.  In 
other  words,  all  the  strata  numbered  from  1  to  3  dip  to- 
ward the  areas  marked  C.     It  follows,  also,  that  Nos.  2  and 


ONWARD   THROUGH  THE  AGES. 


137 


3  dip  away  from  No.  1.  No.  4  and  C  are  generally  nearly 
horizontal,  except  in  the  vicinity  of  mountain  disturbances. 
Now,  by  keeping  in  mind  the  dips  of  the  several  strata, 
and  tracing  each,  in  conception,  underneath  those  which 
cover  it,  the  reader  will  be  able  to  present  to  his  imagina- 
tion a  sort  of  stereoscopic  view  of  the  underground  struc- 
ture of  the  Northern  States. 

I  have  now — leaving  out  of  the  account  the  debatable 


.big.  59.  Hugh  Miller,  the  bcotcn  Geologist. 


138  SKETCHES   OF   CREATION. 

Marshall — barely  enumerated  the  epochs  of  two  great  pe- 
riods of  the  world's  organic  history,  the  Silurian  and  De- 
vonian. Who  has  considered  the  measureless  intervals 
which  have  been  so  glibly  hurried  over — the  rising  and 
setting  suns,  the  passing  tempests,  the  lonely-budding  tree, 
the  sands  worried  to  and  fro  upon  the  uncertain  beach,  the 
lives  of  myriads  of  conscious  forms  in  a  long  succession  of 
populations,  the  heaving  shore,  the  rise  of  continents,  the 
burial  of  beautiful  but  senseless  ruins  beneath  acres  of  sed- 
iments from  which  they  shall  never  be  exhumed  ?  Let  me 
commend  the  sublimity  of  the  theme  to  the  reader's  atten- 
tion. 

We  are  now  on  the  threshold  of  another  great  period 
of  the  world's  history.  Graceful  tree-ferns  are  waving  in 
the  distance,  and  giant  club-mosses  are  uttering  from  their 
fronds  a  breezy  murmur  refreshing  to  the  mind  wearied 
with  the  contemplation  of  the  uncouth  and  sombre  forms 
which  vegetated  in  the  earlier  seas.  Looking  through  the 
vistas  of  the  future,  we  behold  lazy  reptiles  reposing  upon 
banks  protected  by  the  tangled  stems  of  lepidodendra  and 
calamaria,  or  floating  in  the  tepid  bayous  of  a  tropical  jun- 
gle. The  novelty  and  interest  of  the  prospect  invite  us 
onward,  but  the  vastness  of  the  field  bids  us  pause  and  re- 
fresh ourselves  before  we  venture  upon  our  jottings  from 
the  scenes  of  the  Carboniferous  Period. 


AN  UNDERGROUND  EXCURSION  139 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

AN   UNDERGROUND    EXCURSION. 

FOUR  hundred  feet  beneath  the  foundations  of  the  city, 
with  its  piles  of  brick,  and  marble,  and  iron — beneath 
the  roots  of  the  oaken  forest  and  its  Dodonean  colonnades 
— beneath  the  bed  of  the  flowing  river  and  its  freight  of 
animated  hulls — down  four  hundred  feet  beneath  the  light 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  guided  only  by  the  glimmer  of 
the  oil  lamp  suspended  from  his  smutty  cap,  the  miner 
works  the  coal  which  blafes  in  the  cheerful  grate,  or 
wakes  the  slumbering  energy  which  drives  the  monster 
steamer  on  the  stormy  wave.  Let  us  enter  the  yawning 
avenue  to  this  subterranean  world.     [See  Appendix,  Note 

Armed  each  with  a  miner's  lamp,  and  clad  in  a  miner's 
garb  borrowed  for  the  occasion,  we  step  upon  a  platform, 
or  "cage,"  six  feet  square,  suspended  by  iron  rods  connect- 
ed with  machinery  moved  by  an  engine,  and,  at  the  word, 
begin  to  sink  into  the  gulf  of  blackness  beneath  us.  This 
perpendicular  hole,  perhaps  eight  feet  square,  is  called  the 
"  shaft."  By  the  light  of  the  outer  world  thrown  into  the 
mouth  of  the  chasm,  we  perceive  that  the  shaft  passes  at 
first  through  a  few  feet  of  sand  and  gravel.  Lower  down 
the  darkness  of  the  pit  enshrouds  us,  but  we  learn  by  the 
gleam  of  the  lamps  that  we  are  passing  through  fifty  feet 
of  coal-black  shales,  which,  like  the  sandy  beds  above,  are 
held  in  their  places  by  a  frame  of  planks.  We  next  find 
ourselves  in  the  middle  of  an  aperture  through  a  bed  of 
limestone  perhaps  twenty-five  feet  thick.     The  walls  are 


Fig.  GO.  Miners  going  down 


1  engraving  by  Bonnorume. 


AN  UNDERGROUND  EXCURSION.  141 

studded  with  the  shells  of  molluscs  which  lived  and  en- 
joyed existence  when  this  limestone  was  the  ocean's  bed, 
and  the  light  of  day  shone  down  upon  their  quiet  abodes 
as  it  now  shines  upon  the  busy  builders  of  the  coral  reef. 
The  light  of  day ! — but  a  day  of  God's  eternity,  which 
dawned  upon  our  planet  before  Elohim  had  said,  "Let 
us  make  man  in  our  image."  Rapidly  through  the  belt 
of  limestone  our  little  car  descends,  and  we  next  find  our- 
selves environed  by  a  wall  oi  sandstone.  Here  and  there 
are  streaks  and  patches  of  dark  carbonaceous  material, 
and  occasionally  the  eye  catches  glimpses  of  woody  stems 
imbedded  in  the  solid  rock.  But  hark  !  a  sound  of  water 
rises  from  the  darkness  beneath.  A  subterranean  stream 
has  been  intercepted,  and  a  little  rill  is  trickling  down  the 
massive  wall-side.  Again  in  the  midst  of  black,  bitumin- 
ous shales;  and  now  we  hang  suspended  opposite  an  open- 
ing in  the  stony  wall.  One  hundred  feet  above  our  heads 
the  light  of  heaven  is  still  visible,  and  three  hundred  feet 
below  are  darkness  and  emptiness.  On  the  right  and  the 
left  are  entrances  to  chambers  which  have  been  excavated 
in  a  seam  of  coal  occurring  at  this  level.  But  the  end  of 
our  journey  is  not  here.  Continuing  to  descend,  we  per- 
ceive  the  bed  of  coal  underlaid  by  clay,  with  abundant 
grass-like  shoots  and  occasional  stems  of  vegetation.  In 
kirn  we  pass  shales  and  sandstones,  and  then  seams  of 
coal,  till,  at  the  depth  of  two  hundred  feet  beneath  the 
surface,  we  hang  before  another  portal  to  a  long,  dark 
avenue  excavated  in  a  deeper-seated  bed  of  coal.  In 
some  of  the  dark  and  dusty  chambers  of  the  labyrinth 
which  opens  here  the  miner's  pick  is  heard  resounding, 
and  now  and  then  the  muffled  report  of  the  miner's  blast 
comes  echoing  through  the  vaulted  aisles.  But  this  is  not 
the  station  where  we  intended  to  stop.  Our  car  moves 
on,  and  we  plunge  through  two  hundred  feet  more  of  the 


AN  UNDERGROUND  EXCURSION.  143 

rocky  rind  of  the  earth.  Above  us,  the  mouth  of  the  shaft 
seems  narrowed  by  perspective  into  an  insignificant  hole ; 
before  us  opens  a  dark  street,  over  which,  on  a  tramway, 
mules  are  hauling  car-loads  of  coal,  which  is  starting  on  its 
journey  to  the  populous  city  (Fig.  61).  Miners,  with  their 
picks,  are  moving  to  and  fro ;  the  sound  of  hammers  is 
heard ;  the  paraphernalia  of  busy  life  are  about  us,  and  we 
seem  translated  to  a  nether  world.  We  feel  like  the  hero 
of  the  Latin  song,  who  got  permission  to  visit  the  realm 
of  Pluto,  and  make  the  acquaintance  of  unborn  spirits  des- 
tined to  dawn  upon  the  world  in  the  coming  Golden  Age. 
Where  is  the  Styx  and  its  sleepy  boatman?  Where  are 
the  shades  that  expectation  thinks  to  see  flitting  before 
us?  Let  us  enter  this  dingy  street,  and  conjure  spirits 
from  their  Lethean  sleep  upon  the  coaly  couches  that  line 
the  passage-way. 

The  seam  of  coal  is  a  broad,  horizontal  sheet  or  bed  from 
three  to  five  feet  thick.  In  this  are  excavated  passages 
about  eight  feet  wide  and  about  five  feet  high.  A  main 
"  gangway"  may  be  half  a  mile  or  a  mile  in  length.  From 
this,  at  suitable  intervals,  lateral  passages  or  "  chambers" 
are  quarried  out,  running  nearly  at  right  angles  with  the 
main  gangway.  The  same  bed  of  coal  may  be  pierced  by 
several  gangways — diverging  from  each  other  as  the  ave- 
nues diverge  from  the  Capitol  at  Washington— from  each 
of  which  extend  numerous  lateral  chambers.  These  cham- 
bers often  intersect  each  other,  and  thus  constitute  a  net- 
work of  passages  like  the  streets  of  a  city.  Along  the 
principal  passages  tramrails  are  laid  for  the  transportation 
of  the  coal  in  trams,  or  little  cars,  from  the  remote  portions 
of  the  mine  to  the  shaft.  Each  miner  employs  a  separate 
tram,  and  receives  a  stipulated  amount  per  ton  for  the  coal 
sent  up  by  him.  The  trams  are  moved  over  the  track  by 
mules,  which  often  spend  their  lives  under  ground.     They 


AN  UNDEMGMOUND  EXCURSION.  145 

are  stalled  and  fed  in  side-rooms  excavated  in  the  coal  and 
superincumbent  rocks.  The  requisite  circulation  of  pure 
air  is  maintained  through  the  mine  by  the  consumption  of 
refuse  coal  at  some  suitable  place,  the  smoke  and  heated 
air  from  which  ascend  through  a  separate  shaft.  The  es- 
cape of  heated  air  through  this  shaft  causes  a  descent  of 
external  air  to  take  place  through  the  main  shaft.  Com- 
munication between  the  two  shafts  is  effected  only  through 
the  remote  portions  of  the  mine,  so  that  the  pure  air  is 
made  to  permeate  all  the  passages.  Still  there  must  al- 
ways be  side-rooms  through  which  no  circulation  can  be 
effected,  and  here  not  unfrequently  collects  that  explosive 
"  fire-damp,"  or  light  carbide  of  hydrogen,  so  often  evolved 
spontaneously  from  the  coal,  and  so  often  the  cause  of  fatal 
accidents  to  the  miners  (Fig.  62).  When  the  seam  of  coal 
is  less  than  five  feet  thick,  it  becomes  necessary  to  remove 
some  of  the  superincumbent  rock,  to  render  the  roofs  of  the 
main  passages  sufficiently  high  for  the  mules  to  travel  un- 
der them. 

Thus  entire  square  miles  of  a  coal-seam,  hundreds  of  feet 
beneath  the  surface,  are  perforated  in  all  directions  by  the 
hand  of  the  miner  (Fig.  63),  as  ship-timber  is  riddled  by 
the  depredations  of  the  Teredo. 

By  the  feeble  light  of  our  miner's  lamp  we  enter  one  of 
these  dusky  aisles.  The  substratum  beneath  our  feet  has 
been  ground  to  dust.  The  whole  thickness  of  the  coal- 
seam  is  exposed  along  the  lateral  walls.  Occasionally  it 
presents  gentle  undulations  instead  of  lying  in  a  rigidly 
plane  position,  and  not  unfrequently  a  huge  bulge  of  the 
underlying  rocks  completely  cuts  off  the  seam.  Overhead 
a  black,  bituminous  shale  forms  the  ceiling.  Perhaps  here 
and  there  the  white  shell  of  a  univalve  or  a  bivalve  pro- 
jects from  the  surface — the  products  of  the  sea  buried  in 
their  native  sediments,  and  suspended  above  our  heads. 

G 


146 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


What  a  change  in  the  condition  of  things  since  those  little 
animals  lived  in  the  shallow  surface-waters  in  which  those 
sediments  accumulated !  Lo  !  here  above  us  is  a  mirror- 
surface  gleaming  in  the  light  reflected  from  our  lamps. 
Its  polish  is  like  that  of  jet,  and  yet  it  is  wrought  upon  the 
face   of  the   solid  rock.      Some   slight  movement  of  the 


AN  UNDERGROUND  EXCURSION. 


147 


earth's  crust  has  cracked  the  shaly  roof;  the  opposite  sides 
of  the  fissure  have  been  moved  to  and  fro  over  each  other, 
and  under  the  mighty  pressure  the  two  opposing  faces  have 
been  beautifully  polished. 

But  probably  different  sights  will  greet  our  eyes.  The 
rocky  ceiling  is  ornamented  every  where  by  the  most  ex- 
quisite tracery1— inim- 
itable representations 
of  the  delicate  fronds 
offerns(Fig.64).  We 
remove  a  scale  of  the 
rock,  and  behind  is 
still  another  picture. 
Remove  a  second,  and 
from  the  dark  black 
rock  gleams  forth  an- 
other form  of  grace 
and  beauty.  The 
whole  mass  of  the 
shaly  roof  is  a  port- 
folio of  inimitable 
sketches.  The  sharp- 
est outlines  and  mi- 
nutest serratures  of 
the  leaves  are  clearly 
traced.  The  very 
nerves,  with  their 
characteristic  bifurca- 
tions, are  accurately 
depicted  on  this  won- 
derful lithograph. 
Petioles,  and  buds, 
and  woody  stems,  and 
cones,  and  fruits,  slender  grass-leaves,  striated  rushes,  the 


148  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

fluted  stems  of  gigantic  club-mosses,  the  scarred  and  pitted 
trunks  of  extinct  tree-ferns,  diversify,  by  turns,  the  crayon 
sketchings  of  the  dusky  ceiling.  Prostrate,  all !  They 
have  stood  erect ;  the  soil  has  held  them  by  their  spread- 
ing roots,  the  genial  sunlight  has  warmed  them,  the  vital 
breeze  has  fanned  their  verdant  foliage ;  change,  which 
transforms  all  things,  has  swept  over  them,  and  graceful 
fern  and  giant  club-moss,  slender  reed  and  arrogant  coni- 
fer, have  laid  down  together  in  their  couch  of  sediment, 
and  the  old  sexton,  Time,  has  piled  upon  them  the  accumu- 
lated ashes  of  a  hundred  succeeding  generations  of  trees, 
and  herbs,  and  perished  populations.  What  a  store-house 
of  suggestions  is  here  !  The  dusty  "  Catacombs"  are  less 
eloquent  in  their  inscriptions ;  the  vaults  of  the  Pyramids 
recite  a  history  less  full  of  meaning.  To  the  soul  that 
holds  communion  with  the  visible  ideas  that  dwell  about 
him,  these  rocky  walls  are  vocal  with  narratives  of  earth- 
quake and  flood,  of  nodding  verdure  and  of  desolating 
surge ;  these  shales  are  the  tombstones  of  generations,  on 
which  are  inscribed  chronologies  whose  minutes  are  the 
cycles  of  the  Hindoo.  Here  is  the  populous  abode  of 
world-ideas.  Through  these  dim  avenues  flit  spectres  of 
the  ancient  thoughts  which  were  once  the  acting  energies 
of  our  planet.  Here  is  the  real  Acherontian  realm.  He 
who  has  descended  to  these  subterranean  halls,  and  held 
converse  with  the  forms  which  here  abide,  has  visited  a 
world  and  communed  with  intelligences  of  which  Anchisi- 
ades  had  only  dreamed. 

Shall  we  venture  to  translate  the  histories  recorded  upon 
these  rocky  leaves  ?  What  were  the  scenes  and  events  of 
that  epoch  of  the  world  when  these  buried  vegetable  forms 
were  living,  growing  organisms,  and  Nature  was  storing 
away  for  the  human  race  these  magazines  of  fuel  ? 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  GOAL  PERIOD.  149 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  COAL  PERIOD. 

TT  was  in  the  middle  ages  of  the  history  of  the  world. 
-■-  The  growing  continents  had  lifted  their  brows  above 
the  surface  of  the  all-embracing  sea ;  but  their  spreading 
plains  and  long-extended  shores  were  still  the  empire  of 
the  garpikes,  and  the  nursery  of  illimitable  beds  of  encri- 
nites  and  polyps.  The  Gulf  of  Mexico  jutted  northward  to 
Middle  Iowa,  and  rolled  its  widening  waters  northwest  far 
toward  the  sources  of  the  Missouri  River.  There  are  good 
reasons  for  believing  that  it  stretched  through  the  entire 
length  of  the  continent  to  the  Frozen  Ocean.  The  shore- 
line of  the  Atlantic  reached  from  Connecticut  through 
Southern  New  York  and  Northern  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illi- 
nois, to  the  valley  of  the  future  Mississippi.  All  the  centre 
of  Michigan  was  a  sea-bottom,  and  not  unlikely  a  gulf  pro- 
jected northward  over  the  peninsula  now  inclosed  by  the 
great  lakes.  There  was  never,  however,  any  free  commu- 
nication between  the  Michigan  Gulf  and  the  ocean  after 
the  later  portion  of  the  Devonian  Age.  Hudson's  Bay 
stretched  far  toward  the  site  of  Lake  Superior,  as  the  Arc- 
tic Sea  pushed  down  from  the  north  to  fall  into  the  warm 
embrace  of  the  waters  of  the  Mexican  Gulf.  The  great 
lakes  were  not — save,  perhaps,  Lake  Superior — nor  the 
mighty  Mississippi,  nor  the  thunder-voiced  Niagara.  The 
youthful  continent  was  yet  unclothed  with  soil,  save  the 
rocky  detritus  which  nourished  the  lean  vegetation  which 
began  to  garnish  the  land  during  the  period  of  the  Che- 
mung and  Marshall.     The  skeleton  rocks  protruded  every 


150 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


where  in  bleak,  inhospitable  exposures.  Occasionally  in  a 
low  valley  was  gathered  a  cluster  of  dwarfish  trees,  nour- 
ished by  the  crude  aliment  of  a  hastily-compounded  soil, 
and  insect  were  yet  slumbering  in  the 


Beast,  and  bird, 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  COAL  PERIOD.  \§\ 

chambers  of  the  future — ideas  reserved  in  the  all-produc- 
ing mind  of  Omniscience.  Food  for  them  there  was  none. 
The  atmosphere  was  a  noxious  poison,  charged  with  all  the 
carbon  which  now  exists  in  the  form  of  modern  vegetation 
and  beds  of  mineral  coal.  Denizens  of  the  sea  had  for 
ages  strewn  its  bottom  with  the  ruins  of  their  workman- 
ship— mountains  of  coral  masonry  had  been  reared  by  the 
little  polyp  architect,  but  in  all  the  murky  air  which  floated 
over  the  land  and  sea  was  not  one  motion  of  an  animated 
being — not  a  voice — no  song  of  bird,  or  hum  of  insect's 
wing  to  break  the  dread,  eternal  silence.  The  surges  broke 
upon  the  beach,  the  tempest  gathered  in  the  thickening  air, 
but  no  beast  hurried  to  the  sheltering  cave;  the  storm 
burst  upon  the  bald  and  desolate  cliff,  but  no  fluttering 
wing  sought  protection  from  its  fury. 

The  period  had  now  arrived,  however,  when  this  verdure- 
less  and  voiceless  scene  was  to  be  clothed  and  animated. 
Now  was  perhaps  the  most  important  epoch  in  the  whole 
physical  history  of  our  planet.  The  forces  of  nature  were 
now  to  be  called  to  their  grandest  exercise.  The  laws  of 
chemistry  were  summoned  to  an  operation  miraculously 
beneficent  and  providential.  Organic  force  now  girded 
itself  for  the  production  of  new  and  higher  forms  of  ani- 
malization,  and  for  the  display  of  the  earliest  and  richest 
exuberance  of  the  vegetable  kingdom. 

The  series  of  animate  existences  began  with  the  proto- 
zoon,  and  had  beSn  carried  through  long  progressive  stages 
to  the  highest  types  which  make  their  home  in  the  water 
and  respire  that  element.  Man,  the  far-off  consummation 
of  all  these  improvements,  was  to  be  a  vastly  superior 
being ;  but  the  next  step  in  the  direction  of  this  consum- 
mation must  be  the  introduction  of  an  air-breathing  ani- 
mal. In  the  existing  condition  of  the  world  no  air-breath- 
ing animal  could  survive,  and  Nature  was  called  upon  to 


152  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

solve  the  problem  of  the  elimination  of  the  noxious  gas 
which  unfitted  the  atmosjmere  for  respiration.  Till  this 
was  done  the  progressive  series  of  animal  forms  must  here 
be  arrested,  and  the  last  term  of  the  series,  man,  toward 
which  all  the  steps  of  the  previous  preparation  had  con- 
verged, must  remain  a  distant  and  unattainable  hope,  and 
Nature  fail  of  her  completeness  and  her  crown. 

The  development  history  of  the  American  continent  had 
been  conducted  through  a  succession  of  vertical  oscilla- 
tions, extending  eastward  to  the  still  subaqueous  ridges  of 
the  Appalachians,  and  westward  to  the  corresponding  nas- 
cent ridges  of  the  Pacific  slope.  The  valleys  of  the  two 
great  oceans  had  been  continually  deepening  beneath  the 
pressure  of  the  superincumbent  masses  of  waters,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  the  intervening  continental  space  had  suffered 
a  corresponding  vertical  uplift,  so  that  the  waters  had 
been  poured  off  from  the  site  of  the  future  continent,  and 
a  mere  shallow  lagoon  occupied  the  present  area  of  the 
Middle  and  Southern  States  and  Territories.  The  oscilla- 
tions of  the  submarine  soil  down  to  the  dawn  of  the  period 
now  under  consideration — sometimes  increasing  and  some- 
times diminishing  the  depth  of  the  waters — left  it  at  last 
but  little  sunken  beneath  the  general  surface  of  the  sea. 
[See  the  areas  marked  C,  Fig.  58.] 

Now  a  state  of  more  than  usual  uneasiness  began  to 
manifest  itself.  The  ocean  bed  heaved  and  sank  as  in  the 
breathings  of  a  mortal  agony.  Surges  mountain -high 
rolled  up  the  sterile  strand,  and,  wasted  with  their  own 
violence,  fell  back  upon  their  ocean  couch.  This,  of  course, 
was  not  the  period  for  an  abundance  of  animal  life.  But, 
if  the  usual  fecundity  of  Nature  was  for  a  time  suspended 
on  our  continent,  some  other  continent  may  have  been  the 
theatre  of  its  display.  In  America  the  crumbling  margins 
of  the  sea  were  worked  up  into  cubic  miles  of  sand  and 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  COAL  PERIOD.  153 

pebbles,  and  transported  to  embankments  sometimes  thou- 
sands of  feet  in  thickness.  The  tombs  of  the  Cephalaspis, 
Pterichthys,Coccosteus,  and  Holoptychius  of  the  Old  World, 
and  of  Onychodus,  Machcer •acanthus,  Agassichthys,  and  Ri- 
nodus  of  the  New,  were  buried  immemorable  depths  be- 
neath the  rubbish  of  a  geological  revolution.  These  were 
the  accumulations  of  the  "Millstone  Grit."  Anon,  the  vio- 
lence of  Nature  suffered  a  pause,  and  finer  sediments  only 
were  transported  over  the  areas  previously  strewn  with 
sand  and  pebbles.  Many  alternations  of  finer  and  coarser 
deposits  thus  succeed  each  other  among  the  lower  beds  re- 
posing immediately  beneath  the  coal. 

In  the  course  of  ages  the  shallow  sea  became  a  marsh. 
Now  that  a  foothold  for  terrestrial  vegetation  was  estab- 
lished, the  all-adaptive  hand  of  Nature  planted  the  soil 
with  many  kinds  of  herbs  and  trees.  Simultaneously,  on 
every  side,  innumerable  germs  spring  up  from  the  new- 
made  sediments.  Vegetation,  in  varied  types  and  family 
alliances,  starts  forth  at  the  fiat  of  creative  energy,  and  the 
world  is  dressed  in  a  garment  of  shining  verdure.  No 
provident  hand  had  strewn  the  soil  with  the  seeds  of  these 
unfamiliar  forms.  The  All  -  commanding  had  summoned 
the  tribes  of  plants  from  the  shadowy  realm  of  ideas,  and 
they  stood  forth  in  multitudinous  array,  clad  in  the  newest 
and  brightest  garments  of  Nature's  exhaustless  wardrobe 
— mute,  unconscious  existences,  but  yet  with  life  and  or- 
gans, beginning  from  the  moment  of  their  appearance  to 
play  upon  the  elements  which  Omniscience  had  provided 
for  their  elaboration.  How  carefully  was  the  soil  prepared 
to  encourage  the  luxuriant  growth  and  wide  dissemination 
of  these  beautiful  creatures !  Lifted  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  it  maintained  the  humid  condition  most  congenial  to 
the  nature  of  the  most  luxuriant  growers.  The  internal 
heat  of  the  earth,  however,  at  this#  early  period,  warmed 

G2 


!54  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  surface  to  a  tropical  temperature,  and  stimulated  the 
roots  of  the  new-born  vegetation,  while  from  the  tepid 
waters  the  atmosphere  was  reeking  with  moisture,  and 
ever  and  anon  dispensing  its  showers  upon  the  green-car- 
peted savanna.  But,  more  than  all,  the  food  most  grateful 
to  the  growing  plant  was  that  abundant  carbonic  acid 
whose  presence  in  the  atmosphere  was  the  fatal  bar  to  the 
introduction  of  terrestrial  animals. 

This  scene  of  verdure  was  destined  to  short  duration. 
One  of  the  ever-recurring  oscillations  of  the  earth's  crust 
sank  the  entire  flora  beneath  the  ocean's  level.  Pebbles, 
and  sand,  and  argillaceous  mud  were  strewn  over  the  layer 
of  prostrate  vegetation,  and  the  sea  again  held  undisputed 
sway  over  states  once  rescued  from  its  dominion. 

Again  the  established  order  of  Nature  brought  these 
latest  sediments  to  the  surface,  and  again,  as  if  by  magic, 
the  fairy  forms  of  a  flowerless  vegetation  start  up  from  the 
germless  sands.  Generations  of  these  new  forms  luxuriate 
in  the  humid  vales  of  another  epoch — fix,  in  their  woody 
tissues,  another  portion  of  the  superabundant  plant-food 
of  the  atmosphere,  and  then  fall  down  to  mingle  with  the 
peaty  accumulations  of  the  period. 

Anon,  another  inundation  devastates  the  scene,  and 
sands  and  clays  are  borne  by  the  rushing  tides,  and  the 
dense  growths  of  the  recent  jungle  again  disappear  be- 
neath another  packing  of  silt  and  shingle,  as  a  field  of 
marsh-grass  is  buried  beneath  the  sand  borne  forward  by 
the  summer  overflow  of  a  great  river.  Thus,  perhaps,  a 
hundred  times  in  the  course  of  ages,  the  vegetable  growths 
of  one  epoch  were  entombed  beneath  the  debris  of  a  more 
violent  one.  Occasionally  the  inundating  waters  assumed 
the  quiet  habit  of  a  deep  and  permanent  sea.  Then,  that 
no  adaptation  of  inorganic  nature  might  be  wanting  in  the 
answering  aptitudes  of  the  organic  world,  myriads  of  ma- 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  COAL  PERIOD.  155 

rine  creatures  swarmed,  and  lived,  and  died  upon  the 
grounds  that  had  often  aforetime  been  the  seat  of  terres- 
trial vegetation.  Thus,  perhaps,  a  bed  of  calcareous  sedi- 
ments, destined  to  become  a  limestone,  was  interpolated 
among  the  couches  of  sand,  and  shale,  and  vegetable  mat- 
ter. 

The  theatre  of  these  changing  scenes  was  the  whole  of 
that  area  now  covered  by  the  coal-measures  of  the  country 
(see  Fig.  58),  as  well  as  large  portions  of  the  intervening 
regions,  from  which  the  coal  has  been  swept  by  the  besom 
of  geological  denudation.  In  the  later  ages  of  geological 
history,  wasting  agencies  have  moved  over  the  surface  of 
the  country,  scoring  through  the  solid  rocks,  scooping  out 
lake-basins,  carrying  away  entire  formations,  and  exposing 
deeply-seated  strata  over  wide  areas. 

The  duration  of  the  vicissitudes  which  I  have  sketched 
was  inconceivably  great.  The  amount  of  vegetable  matter 
in  a  single  coal-seam  six  inches  thick  is  greater  than  the 
most  luxuriant  vegetation  of  the  present  day  would  fur- 
nish in  twelve  hundred  years.  Boussingault  calculates 
that  luxuriant  vegetation  at  the  present  day  takes  from 
the  atmosphere  about  half  a  ton  of  carbon  per  acre  annu- 
ally, or  fifty  tons  per  acre  in  a  century.  Fifty  tons  of 
stone-coal,  spread  evenly  over  an  acre  of  surface,  would 
make  a  layer  of  less  than  one  third  of  an  inch.  But  sup- 
pose it  to  be  half  an  inch ;  then  the  time  required  for  the 
accumulation  of  a  seam  of  coal  three  feet  thick — the  thin- 
nest which  can  be  worked  to  advantage — would  be  seven 
thousand  two  hundred  years.  If  the  aggregate  thickness 
of  all  the  seams  of  coal  in  any  basin  amounts  to  sixty  feet, 
the  time  required  for  its  accumulation  would  be  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-four  thousand  years.  In  the  coal-measures 
of  Nova  Scotia  are  seventy-six  seams  of  coal,  of  which  one 
is  twenty-two  feet  thick,  and  another  thirty-seven.     The 


156  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

"  Mammoth  Vein,"  at  Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  is  twen- 
ty-nine feet  thick.  Add  to  the  time  occupied  in  the  accu- 
mulation of  the  coal  the  time  which  elapsed  during  the  in- 
undations, when  shales,  sandstones,  and  limestones  accumu- 
lated to  an  average  of  fifty  times  the  thickness  of  the  coal, 
and  we  shall  have  at  least  double  the  above  interval,  or 
two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  years,  for  the  time 
required  to  build  up  a  series  of  coal-measures  three  thou- 
sand feet  thick.  This  is  about  the  thickness  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania measures,  while  those  of  Nova  Scotia  are  five 
times  as  thick. 

It  is  not  forgotten  that  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
extraordinary  luxuriance  of  Carboniferous  vegetation,  and 
I  offset  this  consideration  by  the  fact  that  large  quantities 
of  carbon,  taken  by  it  from  the  atmosphere,  must  have  been 
returned  again  by  the  partial  decay  and  destruction  of  the 
tissues,  thus  rendering  them  so  difficult  to  detect  in  the 
substance  of  the  coal.  Other  calculations,  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  coal-measures  were  accumulated  at 
the  mouths  of  rivers,  result  in  the  determination  of  a 
length  of  period  equally  enormous.  But  the  whole  history 
of  our  world  since  the  commencement  of  animal  existence 
is  divided  into  over  thirty  periods,  each  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  coal,  and  that  portion  of  its  history  anterior  to 
the  creation  of  animals  was  at  least  equally  protracted  ! 

The  vegetation  of  this  period  was  comparatively  low  in 
rank.  It  was  almost  exclusively  a  flowerless  vegetation. 
But  the  sombre  aspect  of  the  prairie  and  forest  comported 
well  with  the  absence  of  admiring  intelligences,  and  the 
low  grade  and  character  of  the  few  beings  which  basked 
in  the  sun  or  bathed  in  the  waters  of  the  Carboniferous 
Age.  The  leading  forms  of  vegetation  were  allied  to 
rushes,  ferns,  and  club-mosses  (see  Fig.  65).  Many  of  these 
grew  to  colossal  dimensions.     Some  of  the  rushes —  Gala- 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE   COAL  PERIOD 


157 


mites — were  doubtless  thirty  feet  in  height.  The  impres- 
sions of  their  huge  and  prostrate  stems  may  often  be  traced 
upon  the  shale  which  overlies  a  seam  of  coal.  Of  ferns,  no 
species  living  in  temperate  latitudes  attains  the  dimensions 
of  a  tree ;  but  there  formerly  flourished  within  the  limits 
of  the  Northern  States  ferns  which  attained  to  arboreal 
dimensions,  single  fronds  of  which  reached  the  length  of 
six  to  eight  feet..  The  club-mosses — Lepidodendra — of  the 
same  epoch  grew  to  the  magnitude  and  aspect  of  stately 
palms  (Fig.  66).  Among  us  they  trail  upon  the  ground, 
or  rise  but  a  few  inches  above  it.    The  largest  living  club- 


Fiq.  CO.  Remains  of  a  Lepidodendrou. 


158  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

mosses  do  not  exceed  three  feet  in  height.  The  stems  of 
Zepidodendron,  after  the  falling  of  the  leaves,  were  covered 
with  scars  diagonally  arranged,  and  are  often  mistaken  by 
the  uninformed  for  "petrified  snakes."  The  cones  of  these 
plants  are  found  in  great  abundance  in  Ohio.  Another  cu- 
rious form  of  this  period  has  been  styled  Sigillaria.  Their 
fluted  trunks,  from  one  to  five  feet  in  diameter,  have  some- 
times been  seen  sixty  and  seventy  feet  in  length.  The  flut- 
ings  are  marked  by  a  longitudinal  series  of  pits;  like  the 
impressions  of  a  seal.  In  many  instances  these  tree-trunks 
have  been  found  erect,  evidently  buried  while  standing  by 
accumulations  of  sand  and  mud  (Fig.  67).  Below  are  the' 
roots  and  rootlets — formerly  called  Stigmaria — and  the 
very  soil  remaining  in  which  they  flourished.  In  the  ex- 
cavation of  a  bed  of  coal  these  petrified  tree-trunks  are  not 
unfrequently  cut  off  below,  when  the  slight  taper  of  the 
stem  permits  them  to  slide,  by  the  force  of  gravity,  down 
into  the  mine.  These  "  coal-pipes"  are  much  dreaded  by 
the  English  miners,  for  almost  every  year  they  are  the 
cause  of  fatal  accidents.  "  It  is  strange  to  reflect,"  says 
Sir  Charles  Lyell,  "  how  many  thousands  of  these  trees  fell 
originally  in  their  native  forests,  in  obedience  to  the  law 
of  gravity,  and  how  the  few  which  continue  to  stand  erect, 
obeying,  after  myriads  of  ages,  the  same  force,  are  cast 
down  to  immolate  their  human  victims." 

Let  the  reader  embody  before  his  mind's  eye  a  group  of 
rush-like  and  fern-like  trees  and  under-shrubs,  interspersed 
among  gigantic  club-mosses  and  occasional  conifers,  and  he 
has  a  picture  of  a  carboniferous  jungle — a  jungle  not  en- 
livened by  the  tread  of  quadrupeds  or  the  singing  of  birds, 
but  mute  as  the  solitudes  of  an  African  desert — voiceless 
save  when  the  alligator-like  bellowings  of  the  Archego- 
saurus  jn  a  neighboring  bayou  waked  the  echoes  of  those 
gloomy  corridors,  and  startled  the  lesser  amphibia  from 


Fig.  67.  Trunks  of  Sigillaria  in  the  Mine  of  Treuil,  at  Saint  Etienne. 


160  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

their  hiding-places,  or  the  thunder-voice  of  Deity  spoke,  as 
it  still  speaks,  from  the  terror-striking  tempest. 

The  office  of  this  redundant  vegetation  was  finally  ful- 
filled. The  atmosphere  was  purified  of  its  noxious  ele- 
ments, and  higher  creatures  could  live  upon  4he  soil.  Be- 
hold the  wisdom  and  providence  of  the  creative  Architect ! 
Carbonic  acid  was  to  be  removed  from  the  atmosphere,  to 
fit  it  for  animal  respiration.  A  finite  mind  might  have 
aimed  to  effect  this  end  alone.  Omnipotence  was  compe- 
tent to  annihilate  the  poison,  or  convert  it  to  some  solid 
or  liquid  form.  The  infinite  Intelligence,  however,  had  so 
planned  the  universe  that  the  poison  of  the  quadruped  was 
the  food  of  the  plant.  The  very  execution  of  one  portion 
of  the  cosmical  plan  created  a  use  for  that  which  impeded 
the  execution  of  another.  A  double  object  was  thus  ef- 
fected. Nor  was  this  all.  Should  these  enormous  crops 
of  vegetation  grow  up  and  pass  away  unutilized  for  the 
want  of  an  intelligent  population  to  consume  and  use  the 
fuel  ?  It  was  not  so  to  be.  Though  man  was  not  except 
in  the  conceptions  of  the  Almighty,  man  was  regarded  in 
the  preparations  of  this  age.  The  far-seeing  Planner  of 
the  universe  stored  the  carboniferous  fuel  in  repositories 
where  it  could  never  perish,  and  where  it  could  await  the 
uses  of  the  coming  race  of  man.  Nor  was  this  even  the 
end  of  the  providential  purposes.  In  a  subsequent  age 
those  barren  rocks  and  those  beds  of  coal  became  covered, 
first  with  the  basis  of  a  soil,  and  then  with  the  soil  itself; 
so  that  man,  when  he  should  come  upon  the  stage,  might 
find  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  fuel,  and  a  foothold  for  the 
products  of  his  farm,  upon  the  self-same  acres.  Another 
circumstance  should  also  be  here  remarked.  The  preser- 
vation of  these  carboniferous  stores  was  effected  by  the 
packing  down  of  layer  after  layer,  while  beds  of  clay,  and 
sand,  and  calcareous  sediment  were  interposed  between 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE  COAL  PERIOD.  \q\ 

them.  Not  only  was  there  never  another  period  of  the 
world  when  the  supply  of  carbon  was  so  great,  but  never, 
before  or  after,  were  those  frequent  and  gentle  oscillations 
so  long  continued  which  were  the  agencies  in  burying  the 
successive  crops  of  vegetable  growths.  At  least,  such  fre- 
quent oscillations  never  before  or  since  occurred  at  a  time 
when  the  level  of  the  continents  so  nearly  coincided  with 
the  level  of  the  sea.  And,  lastly,  these  very  oscillations, 
while  they  were  subserving  this  collateral  end — which  was 
still  important  enough  to  have  been  the  sole  and  ultimate 
end — were  only  the  symptoms  of  a  great  continental  prep- 
aration, which  was  going  on  from  the  region  of  the  At- 
lantic to  that  of  the  Pacific  shores,  and  which  had  been  in 
progress,  and  .attended  by  similar,  though  much  less  fre- 
quent oscillations,  from  that  remote  period  when  the 
shrinking  of  the  molten  nucleus  of  the  world  located  those 
huge  wrinkles  in  the  stiffening  crust  which  were  to  be  aft- 
erward deepened  into  the  beds  of  the  two  great  oceans. 
Verily,  here  is  a  scope  and  comprehensiveness  of  plan 
which  must  command  our  highest  admiration. 

The  same  general  preparatory  movements  were  still  to 
be  continued— continued  till  the  finished  earth  had  been 
elaborated  for  the  reception  of  man.  It  would  seem  that 
the  frequent  oscillations  of  the  Coal  Period  were  but  the 
tremblings  of  the  strained  crust,  pushed  to  the  very  verge 
of  violent  rupture  by  the  two  enormous  masses  of  water. 
By  turns,  the  central  areas  had  been  protruded  above  the 
waves,  and  by  turns  the  tension  had  found  relief,  and  the 
uplifted  crust  dropped  back  for  a  time  to  its  submarine 
horizon.  Not  before  the  collateral  uses  of  these  phenom- 
ena had  been  subserved  did  the  tension  of  the  crust  reach 
the  measure  of  a  grand  upheaval.  After  trembling  for 
ages  beneath  the  immense  and  increasing  pressures  of  two 
great  oceans,  it  burst  up  in  enormous  folds  thousands  of 


162 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


feet  in  height,  and  extending  from  New  England  to  Ala- 
bama. Some  of  the  folds  of  the  Appalachian  upheaval, 
according  to  the  grand  generalizations  of  the  brothers 
Rogers,  were  protruded  with  so  abrupt  a  flexure,  and  to 
such  a  dizzy  height,  that  they  toppled  over  toward  the 
west ;  while  to  the  west  of  the  principal  axis  of  violence 
the  folds  become  gentler,  and  terminate  in  pleasant  undu- 
lations of  the  surface.  The  Queen  City  of  the  West  stands, 
perhaps,  on  the  last  of  this  series  of  undulations.  Thus 
were  the  Appalachians  brought  into  existence.  Thus  were 
the  deep-seated  beds  of  coal  lifted  above  the  general  level 
of  the  land,  and  brought  within  the  reach  of  moderate  ex- 
cavations, accompanied  by  the  requisite  conditions  for  nat- 
ural drainage  of  the  mines  (Fig.  68). 


Pig.  68.  The  North  American  Continent  at  the  end  of  Paleozoic  Time,  or  begin- 
ning ot'Mesozoic.  (The  dotted  lines  represent  its  present  outlines ;  the  broken 
lines  the  rivers.) 


THE  SCENERY  OF  THE   COAL  PERIOD. 


163 


Subsequent  geological  agencies  have  greatly  modified 
the  primary  result.  The  ocean  has  been  permitted  still 
again  to  sweep  over  the  continent,  and  the  crests  of  the 
folds  and  ridges  have  all  been  planed  down,  and  the  ma- 
terials distributed  over  the  intervening  spaces,  or  worked 
up  in  the  rock-building  of  later  ages.  Thus  the  original 
height  of  the  Alleghanies  has  been  much  reduced.  Thus 
the  swell  upon  which  the  Queen  City  of  the  West  is  built 
has  been  worn  off  to  the  level  of  the  adjacent  areas ;  and 
thus  the  original  limits  of  the  great  Carboniferous  jungle 
have  been  very  much  restricted. 


Pecopteris.    Frond  of  an  ancient  Tree-fern. 


164  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    SCOUTS    OF   THE    REPTILE    HOEDE. 

EMPIRES  rose  upon  the  earth,  and  crumbled  in  succes- 
sion to  decay,  a  thousand  ages  before  the  foot  of 
Adam  had  pressed  the  soil  of  the  Garden  of  Eden.  A  se- 
ries of  dynasties  flitted  like  shadows  over  the  face  of  our 
planet,  and  disappeared  beneath  the  dim  horizon  of  the  past, 
while  the  empire  of  man  was  but  an  idea  dwelling  in  the 
Almighty  Mind.  Here  were  morning  and  evening,  invig- 
orating sunlight  and  cooling  dew,  softly-wooing  breeze  and 
fiercely-maddened  tempest,  springtime  and  autumn,  weep- 
ing clouds  and  placid  evening  sky,  Winter  piping  his  mel- 
ancholy song  upon  the  withered  reeds  of  Summer,  ocean- 
surges  waging  everlasting  battle  with  the  rocky  shore, 
God  alone  spectator  of  the  progress  of  the  mighty  work 
which  was  being  accomplished.  But  there  was  life,  and  mo- 
tion, and  consciousness,  and  enjoyment,  and  death  through 
all  those  dim  and  distant  ages.  Those  dim  and  distant 
ages — how  imagination  halts,  and  faints,  and  falters  in  the 
effort  to  shoot  back  over  the  infinite  stretch  of  years  ! 
Life  was  here,  but  without  a  voice,  without  a  wing,  without 
a  footstep.  The  ignoble  mollusc  held  dominion  in  the  sea 
through  all  the  morning  twilight  of  animated  existence. 

The  mute  fish  reared  his  empire  on  the  ruins  of  that  of 
the  mollusc.  In  the  middle  Paleozoic  ages  this  first  and 
lowest  form  of  vertebrate  existence  appeared  in  all  the  seas 
— not  fishes  clothed  in  horny  scales  like  those  which  swarm 
in  the  waters  of  the  human  era,  but  fishes  clad  in  coat  of 
mail,  bucklered  aud  helmeted  with  bony  plates,  and  armed 


THE  SCOUTS  OF  THE  REPTILE  HORDE.         155 

with  long  and  powerful  spines,  or,  in  a  later  age,  with  a 
fearful  array  of  sharp  and  conical  teeth.  The  dynasty  of 
the  fishes  sprang  up  in  that  period  when  the  limestones  of 
Buffalo,  in  New  York,  and  of  Columbus,  Sandusky,  and 
Kelly's  Island,  in  Ohio,  were  accumulating  as  sediments  in 
the  bottom  of  the  sea ;  when  Canada  West  was  the  ocean's 
bed,  and  the  last  crop  of  zoophytes  was  growing  upon  it ; 
Avhen  the  beautiful  island  of  Mackinac  was  a  submarine 
plantation,  and  the  embryo  fastnesses  of  Old  Fort  Mackinac 
witnessed  an  onslaught  and  a  massacre  more  bloody  and 
destructive  than  that  of  1761.  The  empire  of  the  fishes 
waxed  more  powerful  during  the  succeeding  epochs,  when 
the  "  black  shales"  of  the  West,  and,  later,  the  beautiful 
sandstones  of  Waverly  and  Cleveland,  Ohio,  were  the 
ocean's  bed,  and  hordes  of  marine  forms  roamed  over  the 
area  of  Southern  New  York,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  Mich- 
igan, Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The  Marshall  epoch  probably 
covers  the  latter  part  of  the  period  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone of  Scotland,  whose  ichthyic  populations  have  been  so 
graphically  described  by  the  author  of  the  "  Asterolepis  of 
Stromness." 

The  reign  of  the  fishes  was  prolonged  through  the  Car- 
boniferous period ;  but  the  types  which  wielded  the  sceptre 
during  the  later  ages  of  the  empire  assumed  less  question- 
able forms,  and  began  to  approach  the  external  configura- 
tion of  the  fishes  of  our  day.  They  were  mostly  clothed, 
however,  with  bony  scales,  and  the  backbone  extended  into 
the  upper  lobe  of  the  tail,  which  was  longer  than  the  lower; 
or,  what  is  probably  a  more  correct  view  of  this  structure, 
the  tail  was  supplied  upon  the  under  side  with  a  supernu- 
merary fin,  the  development  of  which  deflected  upward  the 
true  caudal  fin — the  tail  of  the  sturgeon  and  the  garpike 
being  as  truly  "homocercal"  as  that  of  the  whitefish.  It  is 
sad  to  think  of  the  ancient  populousness  and  prowess  of 


Iqq  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

these  mail-clad  fishes,  and  then  turn  to  our  own  times  and 
find  them  reduced  to  a  few  isolated,  hated,  and  hunted  spe- 
cies. The  garpike  or  "billfish"  (Lepidosteus),  and  the  stur- 
geon (Acipenser),  are  the  only  surviving  representatives  of 
the  royal  families  of  the  Carboniferous  Age.  In  turn,  the 
dynasty  of  the  fishes  was  superseded  by  that  of  the  rep- 
tiles. 

It  was  impossible  that  air-breathers  should  inhabit  the 
earth  before  the  atmosphere  became  purified  of  the  noxious 
gases  which  remained  from  the  ancient  igneous  condition 
of  the  globe.  The  principal  impurity — carbonic  acid — was 
destined  to  be  consumed  by  the  demands  of  an  abundant 
terrestrial  vegetation.  The  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  fishes 
was  marked  by  the  advent  of  multitudes  of  land-loving 
vegetable  forms — the  heralds  of  the  close  of  the  dominion 
of  races  whose  element  was  the  water.  It  was  many  ages 
after  its  first  appearance  before  terrestrial  vegetation  be- 
came fully  established.  We  know  that  here  and  there  one 
of  these  stranger  forms  grew  upon  the  shores  of  those  seas 
which  were  the  domain  of  the  fish ;  and,  falling  down  upon 
the  beach,  or  borne  along  by  river  torrents,  the  decaying 
trunks  were  drifted  seaward,  and  sunken  among  the  sands 
which  entombed  the  bodies  of  the  royal  families  of  the  age. 
We  know  that  the  slight  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
the  atmosphere  was  responded  to  by  the  introduction  of 
a  few  air-breathers  of  sluggish  and  imperfect  respiration. 
The  name  of  the  oldest  air-breathing  animal  at  present 
known  to  have  lived  upon  our  earth  is  Telerpeton  Elginense. 
Its  remains  have  been  found  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  in  a 
yellow  sandstone  supposed  to  be  of  the  same  age  as  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone.  The  same  rock  has  furnished  some 
other  remains,  formerly  supposed  to  be  the  vestiges  of 
fishes,  but  now  known  to  be  the  remains  of  reptiles ;  and 
geologists  are  not  by  any  means  of  one  accord  in  the  opin- 


THE  SCOUTS  OF  THE  REPTILE  HORDE.         167 

ion  that  those  sandstones  are  older  than  the  Carboniferous 
Age,  or  even  older  than  the  Trias.  Besides  these,  the  most 
ancient  traces  of  reptilian  remains  occur  in  the  coal-meas- 
ures, which  were  deposited  during  the  decline  of  the  empire 
of  fishes  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Carboniferous  Age. 

The  geological  history  of  reptiles  possesses  many  points 
of  extreme  interest ;  and,  in  order  to  make  them  clear  to 
the  reader,  and  to  give  precision  to  the  brief  account  which 
I  am  about  to  furnish,  I  shall  endeavor  to  recall  in  few 
words  the  classification  of  this  group  of  vertebrates. 

Reptiles  proper,  in  point  of  rank,  are  next  above  the 
Batrachians,  which  come  next  above  the  Fishes.  Reptiles 
are  purely  aerial  in  their  respiration;  Fishes  purely  aquatic ; 
while  the  Batrachians  breathe  water  in  infancy,  and  air  at 
maturity,  exhibiting  thus  a  compromise  between  the  ich- 
thyic  and  reptilian  modes  of  respiration.  The  body  of  the 
reptile  is  always  covered  with  scales  or  bony  plates,  while 
that  of  all  modern  batrachians  is  smooth  or  "  naked."  The 
vertebrae  of  most  reptiles  are  concave  at  one  extremity — 
generally  the  anterior — and  convex  at  the  other;  the  ver- 
tebrae of  batrachians  are  concave  at  both  extremitiesvlike 
those  of  fishes.  There  are  other  distinctions  to  which  I 
need  not  refer.  The  frog  is  the  type  of  the  highest  order 
of  existing  batrachians,  the  salamander  of  the  second,  and 
the  "  fish-lizard"  of  the  lowest.  The  first  is  possessed  of  a 
tail  only  in  the  young  or  tadpole  state ;  the  second  retains 
its  tail  during  life ;  and  the  third  retains  both  its  tail  and 
aquatic — or  embryonic — mode  of  respiration. 

Of  reptiles,  three  orders  which  have  played  a  most  con- 
spicuous and  important  role  in  the  history  of  the  world  are 
entirely  extinct,  and  three  others  still  survive.  The  tur- 
tles, saurians,  and  serpents,  in  descending  order,  embrace 
existing  reptiles.  The  first  are  inclosed  in  a  carapace  or 
"  shell ;"  the  second  have  elongated  forms,  generally  clothed 


16g  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

with  scales  or  bony  plates,  and  almost  always  possess  four 
extremities;  their  eyelids  are  movable,  and  their.two  jaws 
move  vertically  like  those  of  higher  animals.  The  serpents 
are  equally  clothed  with  scales,  but  their  bodies  are  more 
elongated,  and  destitute  of  limbs;  their  eyelids  are  immov- 
able, and  each  of  their  jaws  is  in  two  pieces ;  and  they  have, 
besides,  an  extra  pair  of  jaw-pieces  in  the  roof  of  the  mouth. 
The  extinct  orders  are  Pterodactyls,  or  flying  reptile^ 
Enaliosaurs,  or  marine  reptiles,  and  Labyrinthodonts,  01 
reptiles  with  very  complicated  structure  in  the  substance 
of  their  teeth,  and,  sometimes  at  least,  with  frog-like  forms. 
They  possess  affinities  both  with  true  reptiles  and  with 
batrachians. 

In  1828,  Dr.  Duncan,  a  Scotchman,  had  his  attention  ar- 
rested by  what  appeared  to  be  tracks  of  a  reptile  imprinted 
upon  the  surface  of  solid  sandstone  at  Dumfriesshire.  A 
few  years  later,  tracks  somewhat  resembling  the  impression 
of  a  human  hand  were  observed  upon  similar  sandstone  in 
Saxony.  These  were  also  attributed  to  reptiles.  In  this 
country,  Dr.  Deane  and  Professor  Hitchcock  noticed  upon 
red  sandstones,  in  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River,  nu- 
merous tracks  which  they  were  inclined  to  attribute  to 
birds,  as  they  were  evidently  made  by  three-toed  bipeds.  In 
1836,  Professor  Hitchcock  published  the  first  systematic 
account  of  these  footprints,  in  which  he  pronounced  them 
to  be  mainly  the  tracks  of  birds—  Ornithichnites — a  con- 
clusion which  is  very  questionable.  In  1844,  Dr.  King, 
of  Philadelphia,  also  described  several  kinds  of  footprints 
upon  rocks  then  supposed  to  be  carboniferous,  but  since 
shown  to  be  of  the  same  age  as  the  sandstones  upon  which 
all  the  other  known  tracks  had  been  observed.  The  rocks 
are  the  "  New  Red  Sandstone,"  belonging  to  the  lower  part 
of  the  Jurassic  system,  or  the  upper  part  of  the  Triassic. 
The  position  is  a  considerable  distance  above  the  coal. 


THE  SCOUTS  OF  THE  REPTILE  HORDE.         169 

The  first  indication  of  the  existence  of  reptilian  remains 
in  rocks  as  old  as  the  coal  was  the  discovery,  in  1843,  by 
Sir  William  Logan,  of  some  footprints  in  the  coal-measures 
of  Nova  Scotia.     The  first  reptilian  bones  were  discovered 
in  1852,  in  the  celebrated  coal-measures  of  South  Joggins, 
on  the  Bay  of  Fundy.     The  measures  here  are  two  and 
three  fourth  miles  in  thickness;  and  along  a  middle  belt 
of  fourteen  hundred  feet  they  abound  in  the  remains  of 
ancient  forests,  the  trunks  and  stumps  of  large  trees  still 
standing  erect,  with  their  roots  still  penetrating  the  an- 
cient soil.     Here,  as  has  been  shown  by  Messrs.  Dawson 
and  Lyell,  root-bearing  soils  occur  at  sixty-eight  different 
levels,  and  between  them  are  deposits  of  shale  and  sand- 
stone, which  must  have  had  an  aqueous  and  probably  a  ma- 
rine origin,  thus  showing,  beyond  all  controversy,  that  the 
level  of  the  locality  underwent  at  least  sixty-eight  oscilla- 
tions during  about  one  tenth  of  the  period  of  the  coal-meas- 
ures.   Many  of  these  fossil  tree-trunks  are  hollow,  and  filled 
with  sandstone  containing  vegetable  remains.     In  one  of 
these  hollow  trunks  the  hammer  of  the  Acadian  naturalists 
laid  bare  some  bones,  which  proved  to  be  the  remains  of 
the  oldest  reptile  at   that  time  known  in  America,  and 
which  was  subsequently  named  Dendrerpeton  Acadianum. 
Different  individuals  must  have  varied  from  six  inches  to 
three  feet  in  length,  and  they  were  probably  batrachians 
rather  than  true  reptiles,  though  naturalists  do  not  always 
make  the  distinction.     These  little  animals  seem  to  have 
made  their  home  in  the  hollow  of  the  tree,  and  to  have 
been  overtaken  by  the  flood  which  ended  the  epoch  and 
buried  them  among  the  other  relics  of  their  time.     Anoth- 
er batrachian  was  discovered  the  same  year  in  the  coal  of 
Pictou,  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  1859  still  another.     The 
reader  will  find  these  all  more  minutely  described  in  Daw- 
son's "Air-breathers  of  the  Coal  Period." 

H 


170  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

In  1856  the  first  Batraehian  bones  were  described  from 
the  United  States.  These  were  discovered  by  Dr.  New- 
berry and  C.  M.  Wheatley,  at  Linton,  Jefferson  County, 
Ohio.  There  were  three  different  types  of  beings.  The 
first  had  the  head  and  ribless  trunk  of  a  frog,  combined 
with  the  limbs  and  tail  of  a  salamander.  The  second  and 
third  had  the  vertebrae  of  a  salamander,  with  the  ribs  of  a 
serpent.  The  first  of  these  animals  has  been  named  Hani- 
ceps  Lyelli  by  Dr.  Wyman,  of  Boston. 

In  1863,  Professor  O.  C.  Marsh  described,  from  the  coal- 
measures  of  South  Joggins,  Nova, Scotia,  the  remains  of  a 
reptile  somewhat  higher  in  rank  than  any  other  previously 
known  in  rocks  of  so  high  antiquity — a  true  reptile  belong- 
ing to  the  Enaliosaurs,  or  marine  saurians,  and  related  to 
the  huge  reptiles  which  sported  in  the  waters  of  the  Meso- 
zoic  time,  some  of  which  have  been  so  genially  described 
by  Dr.  Mantell.  This  animal,  which  is  believed  to  have 
been  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  length,  was  probably 
one  of  the  most  fish-like  of  Enaliosaurs.  It  has  been  named 
Eoscmrm  Acadianus. 

How  scattered  must  have  been  the  air-breathing  popu- 
lation of  the  globe  when,  after  thirty  years  of  careful  ob- 
servations, geologists  have  brought  to  light  only  the  fore- 
going brief  list  from  the  carboniferous  rocks  of  the  coun- 
try. I  make  no  note  of  two  or  three  species  of  air-breath- 
ing snails,  a  myriapod,  and  two  or  three  orthopterous  in- 
sects. Seven  species  only  of  vertebrate  air-breathers — in- 
trepid forerunners  of  the  numerous  populations  of  the  suc- 
ceeding periods — scouts,  sent  forward  upon  the  earth  to* 
spy  out  the  land,  and  test  its  fitness  for  the  occupancy  of 
the  hordes  which  were  to  follow ! 

The  coal  had  been  deposited ;  cubic  miles  of  fuel  for  the 
consumption  of  future  generations  had  been  taken  from  the 
atmosphere,  and  packed  in  beds  of  clay  and  sand,  to  await 


THE  SCOUTS   OF  THE  REPTILE  HORDE.        \^\ 

the  arrival  of  a  far-off  race.  The  air  was  fit  for  the  respi- 
ration of  a  low  order  of  terrestrial  animals,  and,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  mandates  of  creative  energy,  they  began  to 
come  forth.  There  was  an  interval  of  time  in  the  history 
of  the  world  when  the  scales  of  empire  hung  balanced  be- 
tween the  fishes, and  the  reptiles.  The  first  were  on  the 
wane ;  the  latter  were  gathering  strength  from  age  to  age. 
Nature  favored  the  latter.  Omnipotence  bade  them  march 
on,  and  vanquish  and  sweep  from  the  earth  those  lower 
forms  which  had  been  permitted  to  hold  the  mastery  in 
creation  only  because  the  world. was,  as  yet,  unfit  for  be- 
ings more  exalted  and  worthy.  These  middle  ages  are 
styled  the  Permian  period.  Vegetation  was  still  abundant. 
Though  the  acme  of  vegetable  luxuriance  had  passed,  and 
no  more  vast  deposits  of  coal  were  to  be  treasured  up — at 
least  in  those  portions  of  the  world  preparing  for  the  occu- 
pancy of  the  Caucasian  race — the  trunks  and  leaves  of  the 
flora  of  that  period,  preserved  in  beds  of  sandstone  and 
shale,  attest  the  productiveness  of  the  Permian  soil.  In 
these  ages  of  the  world  the  first  emphatically  lizard-like 
reptiles  came  upon  the  stage — a  family  belonging  to  the 
Saurians — though  many  of  the  Permian  reptiles  present  a 
divergence  from  true  lizards  in  having  their  numerous 
teeth  implanted  in  sockets  instead  of  soldered  to  the  mar- 
gins of  the  jaws.  Occasionally,  also,  was  to  be  seen  the 
frog-like  form  of  a  Labyrinthodont  sunning  himself  upon 
the  marshy  border  of  a  Permian  estuary  (Fig.  69). 

Until  within  a  few  years  geologists  were  unacquainted 
with  any  Permian  rocks  upon  the  American  continent. 
Dr.  Emmons,  however,  in  1856,  established  the  existence 
of  Permian  reptiles  in  a  brown  sandstone  in  North  Caro- 
lina, deposited  in  some  of  the  furrows  between  the  folds  of 
the  Appalachian  upheaval.  A  little  later,  Permian  rocks 
were  announced  from  Kansas  almost   simultaneously  by 


172 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


Swallow,  Meek,  and  Hall.  The  Permian  rocks  west  of  the 
Mississippi  have  more  recently  been  subjected  to  thorough 
investigations  by  Swallow,  Meek,  Hayden,  and  Shumard ; 
and  though  much  of  what  was  first  regarded  as  Permian 
is  now  proven  to  belong  to  the  period  of  the  coal-measures, 
we  know  that  this  group  of  sediments  is  developed  in  Amer- 
ica on  a  scale  little  less  magnificent  than  in  the  ancient  Rus- 
sian kingdom  of  Perm,  which  gave  its  name  to  the  group. 


.  Labyrintliodon  (restored). 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  173 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    EEIGN   OF   EEPTILES. 

WE  now  enter  upon  a  new  Age  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  The  reptilian  army  has  arrived  and  taken 
absolute  possession  of  the  land  and  the  sea.  The  highest 
of  these  monarch  reptiles,  in  respect  to  organization,  are 
some  lizard-like  creatures  as  much  at  home  in  the  sea  as 
upon  the  land.  But  especially  does  the  great  deep  swarm 
with  huge  beings  having  the  body  of  a  lizard,  the  immense 
jaws  and  sharp,  conical  teeth  of  a  crocodile,  the  bi-concave 
vertebrae  of  a  fish,  and  the  short,  flat  paddles  of  a  whale. 
What  a  synthesis  of  characters  is  here  !  The  type  of  the 
age  is  expressed  in  the  lacertiform  trunk  and  tail.  Croco- 
diles had  not  yet  existed ;  but  the  jaws  of  these  monsters 
seem  like  an  experiment  preparatory  to  the  supply  of  quan- 
tities of  those  savage  brutes.  Mammals  were  yet  in  the 
distant  future ;  but  here,  in  the  paddles  of  these  Enaliosaurs 
is  a  prophecy  of  coming  cetacea— the  form  which  the  mam- 
malian type  assumes  at  the  point  where  it  comes  in  contact 
with  the  type  of  fishes.  The  reign  of  fishes  is  past ;  but 
here,  in  the  bi-concave  vertebra?  of  these  sea-monsters  is 
preserved  a  reminiscence  of  the  last  sovereigns. 

This,  the  Triassic  Age,  was  peculiarly  the  reign  of  Laby- 
rinthodont  saurians.  Thirty-five  years  ago  the  tracks  of 
these  anomalous  creatures  were  first  noticed  upon  some  red 
sandstone  in  Saxony,  and  they  have  since  been  discovered 
in  other  parts  of  the  world.  The  peculiarity  of  these  foot- 
prints consists  in  their  hand-like*form,  and  in  the  occur- 
rence of  a  series  of  larger  and  smaller  in  connection  with 


174  SKETCHES   OF  CM  EAT  I  ON. 

each  other.  The  latter  circumstance  led  to  the  opinion 
that  the  posterior  limbs  of  the  reptile  were  much  stouter 
than  the  anterior,  as  in  the  kangaroo  and  frog.  When  the 
bones  of  these  animals  were  brought  to  light,  geologists  had 
the  opportunity  to  certify  themselves  that  these  problem- 
atical hand-prints  were  impressed  by  reptilian  instead  of 
mammalian  quadrupeds ;  and  that  while  the  weight  of 
characters  allied  them  to  true  reptiles,  they  nevertheless 
possessed  strong  analogies  with  Batrachians,  and  probably 
simulated  the  form  and  habits  of  the  frog — though  in  truth 
we  should  say  that  the  frog  was  subsequently  fashioned  in 
the  similitude  of  a  Labyrinthodont.  The  head  was  helmet- 
ed  by  a  pair  of  broad,  bony  plates,  through  which  were 
openings  for  the  eyes ;  and  some  parts  of  the  body  were 
covered,  especially  in  the  later  ages,  by  a  similar  armor. 
The  striking  characteristic  of  these  ancient  reptiles,  from 
which  they  receive  their  name,  is  seen  when  a  very  thin 
transverse  section  or  slice  of  one  of  the  teeth  is  viewed  un- 
der the  microscope.  The  external  coating  of  the  tooth, 
called  cement,  is  folded  inward  in  folds  which  reach  to  the 
central  cavity,  and  in  their  course  are  inflected  into  a  laby- 
rinth of  subordinate  lateral  folds.  Some  of  these  frog-like 
quadrupeds  seem  to  have  attained  the  size  of  an  ox.  It  is 
likely  that  they  were  the  representatives  of  the  class  of 
Batrachians  in  those  early  periods,  as  no  other  Batrachia 
are  known  in  the  Trias ;  and  those  before  alluded  to  from 
the  coal-measures  are  known  likewise  to  have  possessed 
the  peculiar  cephalic  plates  of  the  Labyrinthodonts. 

The  Triassic  Age  witnessed  also  the  advent  of  multi- 
tudes of  marine  saurians  of  the  family  of  Ichthyosaurs,  hav- 
ing enormous  cavities  in  their  craniums  for  the  lodgment 
of  the  eyes.  This  type  of  reptiles  is  restricted  to  this  sin- 
gle age  of  the  world,  f  Iere  also  crawled  reptiles  resem- 
bling gigantic  lizards,  semi-aquatic  or  purely  terrestrial  in 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  175 

their  habits,  having  feet  for  walking  instead  of  flat,  oar- 
like extremities  for  swimming. 

These  forms  all  disappeared  with  the  dawn  of  a  new  era. 
Their  bones  lie  buried  in  the  geological  cemeteries  of  Eu- 
rope. It  is  almost  incredible  that  information  so  exact  can 
be  drawn  from  the  few  scattered  fragments  which  have 
been  brought  to  light ;  but  such  is  the  unity  and  persist- 
ence of  plan  which  runs  through  the  different  classes  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  that  a  single  tooth,  whether  of  a  living  or 
extinct  species,  will  often  suffice  to  enable  the  expert  to 
disclose  all  the  zoological  relationships  of  the  animal  to 
which  it  belonged,  to  delineate  its  form,  and  size,  and  hab- 
its of  life ;  as  the  architect  from  a  single  capital  rescued 
from  a  ruined  edifice  can  declare  not  only  the  general 
style  of  the  entire  architecture,  but  can  reproduce  the  size 
and  proportions  of  the  temple  whose  spirit  and  method  it 
embodies.  Not  less  sublime  than  the  work  of  the  astron- 
omer, who  sits  in  his  observatory,  and,  by  the  use  of  a  few 
figures,  determines  the  existence  and  position  in  space  of 
some  far-off,  unknown  orb,  is  that  of  the  paleontologist — 
the  astronomer  of  time-worlds — who,  from  the  tooth  of  a 
reptile,  or  the  bony  scale  of  a  fish  found  thirty  feet  deep  in 
the  solid  rock,  declares  the  existence,  ages  ago,  of  an  ani- 
mal form  which  human  eyes  never  beheld — a  form  that 
passed  totally  out  of  being  uncounted  centuries  before  the 
first  intelligent  creature  was  placed  upon  our  planet — and 
by  laws  as  unerring  and  uniform  as  those  of  the  mathe- 
matics, proceeds  to  give  us  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
extinct  form ;  to  tell  us  whether  it  lived  upon  dry  land,  in 
marshes,  or  in  the  sea ;  whether  a  breather  of  air  or  water, 
and  whether  subsisting  upon  vegetable  or  animal  food.  It 
is  this  unity  of  the  laws  of  animal  life  and  organization 
running  through  the  whole  chain  of  existence,  whether  past 
or  present,  whether  extinct  or  recent,  that  constitutes  the 


!76  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

sublime  philosophy  of  paleontological  studies,  and  assures 
us  that  one  enduring  and  infinite  Intelligence  has  planned 
and  executed  every  part  of  creation. 

Crowds  of  reptile  forms  have  passed  before  our  view,  but 
we  have  only  just  arrived  at  the  culmination  of  the  reign 
of  reptiles — the  Herpetarchy  of  the  world's  history.  The 
Jurassic  Age  followed  the  Triassic.  Before  this  time  the 
Trilobites  of  the  Paleozoic  Ages  were  known  only  in  his- 
tory. The  plain-chambered  shells  had  been  followed  by 
lobulate-chambered  shells — the  Goniatites — and  these  were 
now,  to  a  great  extent,  superseded  by  the  Ammonites,  a 
family  of  chambered  shells  with  dorsal  siphons  and  ex- 
tremely  complicated  partitions  between  the  chambers.  So 
the  complexity  of  Nature's  products  increased  with  her 
age.  Most  of  the  Ammonites  were  closely  coiled.  In  their 
modifications  and  decorations  the  exuberance  of  Nature 
effloresced  in  hundreds  of  distinct  species.  Six  hundred 
representatives  of  this  peculiarly  European  family  are  ex- 
hibited in  the  museum  of  the  University  of  Michigan — one 
of  the  results  of  the  tireless  industry  of  Dr.  C.  Rominger. 
The  land  was  clothed  with  a  vegetation  quite  similar  to 
that  of  the  present  day ;  but  the  climate  was  yet  warmer 
than  at  present,  and  many  types  of  plants  and  animals, 
which  to-day  are  confined  within  the  tropics,  were  then  en- 
abled to  range  to  the  Arctic  circle  (Fig.  10). 

The  great  feature  of  the  age  was  its  reptiles.  These 
were  represented  in  all  their  orders  except  serpents.  Ba- 
trachians  also  existed,  if  we  may  judge  from  some  remains 
found  in  North  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania  in  sandstones 
accumulated  probably  during  this  age.  These  remains  be- 
long to  the  genus  Composaurus,  and  reveal,  like  the  Car- 
boniferous Batrachians,  some  relationship  with  the  Laby- 
rinthodonts.  Better  characterized  Labyrinthodonts  have 
been  described  under  the  name  of  Centemodo?i,  from  the 


II  2 


1Y8  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

same  sandstones  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  doubtful  genus 
is  known  in  Europe.  This  was  the  last  appearance  of  the 
type.  It  barely  survived  till  the  opening  of  the  Jurassic 
Age,  and  then  dropped  totally  from  existence. 

From  the  little  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia  we  have  also  a 
Triassico-Jurassic  reptile  of  lizard-like  affinities,  which  Dr. 
Leidy,  of  Philadelphia,  has  named  Bathygnathus  borealis. 

The  marine  Saurians  were  present  in  great  force.  One, 
Clepsysaurus  Pennsylvanicus,  paddled  around  the  shores 
of  the  bays  which  rested  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alleghanies, 
while  two  other  genera — Ichthyosaurus  and  Plesiosaurus — 
besides  still  others  of  less  consequence,  made  hideous  the 
waters  of  Central  Europe.  The  animals  belonging  to  the 
last  two  genera  are  among  the  most  wonderful  and  hetero- 
clitic  that  ever  existed  upon  the  earth.  The  Ichthyosau- 
rus had  the  general  contour  of  a  dolphin,  the  head  of  a 
lizard,  the  teeth  of  a  crocodile,  the  sternal  arch  of  an  orni- 
thorhynchus,  and  the  paddles  of  a  whale.  The  Plesiosau- 
rus had  also  the  head  of  a  lizard  and  the  teeth  of  a  croco- 
dile, in  conjunction  with  the  neck  of  a  swan,  the  trunk  and 
tail  of  a  quadruped,  and  the  extremities  of  a  whale.  This 
animal  was  undoubtedly  carnivorous,  and  was  adapted  for 
swimming  around  the  shallow  margins  of  coves  and  bays, 
and  darting  its  long  and  flexible  neck  beneath  the  surface 
of  the  water  to  seize  its  aquatic  prey.  On  being  pursued 
by  the  swift  and  ponderous  Ichthyosaurus,  it  could  dive 
beneath  the  water  and  rest  upon  the  bottom,  while  its 
serpentijfcck  reached  to  the  surface,  and  respiration  con- 
tinued unimpeded  (Fig.  71). 

But,  strange  as  were  the  combinations  of  characters  pre- 
sented by  these  two  animals,  they  were  even  surpassed  in 
eccentricity  by  the  Pterodactyls,  which  n.ow  first  sprang 
into  existence.  It  was  not  easy  to  decide,  on  their  first 
discovery,  whether  they  bore  closest  resemblance  to  mam- 


180  SKETCHES   OF  VREATION. 

mals,  birds,  or  reptiles ;  but  when  comparative  anatomy 
became  better  understood,  it  was  perceived  that  their  re- 
lations to  mammals  and  birds  were  only  in  external  forms, 
while  the  essential  features  of  their  structure  were  undeni- 
ably reptilian.  Every  one  has  heard  of  flying  dragons, 
reptiles  which,  like  "flying  fishes"  and  "flying  squirrels," 
are  able  partially  to  sustain  themselves  in  the  air  by 
means  of  parachute -like  expansions  from  their  bodies. 
But  in  the  Pterodactyls  were  true  aerial  reptiles,  as  bats 
are  genuine  flying  mammals  (see  Fig.  72).  The  Pterodac; 
tyl,  in  the  length  of  its  neck  and  form  of  its  head,  resem- 
bled a  bird.  The  trunk  and  tail  were  like  those  of  a  quad- 
ruped. The  numerous  conical  recurved  teeth  were  formed 
after  the  Saurian  type.  The  anterior  extremities  were  con- 
structed after  the  character  of  bats,  the  last  finger  having 
been  greatly  elongated,  and  adapted  for  supporting  a  mem- 
branous wing,  the  impression  of  which  is  sometimes  pre- 
served in  connection  with  the  bones.  We  kno^p  twenty 
species  of  this  remarkable  order,  all  Old- World  marvels 
save  a  single  pair  of  long  finger-bones  found  at  Phoenix- 
ville  in  Pennsylvania.  Some  were  no  larger  than  a  snipe, 
while  others  were  capable  of  expanding  their  wings  to  a 
breadth  of  sixteen  feet. 

Along  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  River,  from  the 
neighborhood  of  New  Haven  to  the  northern  part  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, is  a  brownish-red  sandstone,  resting  mostly  in 
horizontal  beds,  which  have  been  extensively  quarried  for 
building  purposes.  On  the  banks  of  the  river  at  Portland, 
opposite  Middletown,  are  excavations  several  acres  in  ex- 
tent, which  have  been  in  progress  more  than  a  hundred 
years.  Thousands  of  ship-loads  have  been  sent  down  the 
Connecticut,  and  built  into  the  aristocratic  brown  stone 
fronts  of  New  York.  This  formation  furnished  a  valua- 
ble resource  to  the  earliest  settlers  of  Connecticut.     Their 


182  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

names  and  virtues  are  commemorated  on  the  brown  stone 
slabs  still  standing  in  the  oldest  cemeteries.  The  sheets 
of  this  formation  were  spread  out  in  an  elongated  depres- 
sion in  the  surface  of  the  older  and  underlying  formations. 
On  each  side  of  this  belt  of  horizontal  sandstones  we  reach 
a  limiting  wall  of  tilted  gneisses  and  bubbling  granites. 
These  were  the  land  while  the  waters  of  Long  Island  Sound 
stretched  through  an  estuary  up  to  New  Hampshire,  and 
received  there  the  waters  of  the  embryo  Connecticut.  If 
the  student  of  the  world's  history  will  go  to  the  Portland 
quarries,  he  will  see,  spread  over  the  ground  in  the  vicinity 
of  some  of  the  offices,  slabs  large  and  small,  bearing  traces 
like  the  imprints  of  the  feet  of  birds.  These  track-bearing 
layers  of  the  rock  are  found  at  all  depths  in  the  quarry. 
The  formation  is  generally  believed  to  belong  to  the  later 
Triassic  or  earliest  Jurassic  (Fig.  73). 

The  ornithic  character  of  the  footprints  has  been  stren- 
uously argued  by  Dr.  Deane,  the  discoverer,  and  Professor 
Hitchcock,  the  first  describer  of  these  ichnolites.  This 
opinion  has  been  supported  by  the  weight  of  such  names 
as  Buckland,  Lyell,  Mantell,  and  Forbes ;  but  all  observa- 
tions hitherto  made  on  the  distribution  of  organic  types 
through  geological  time  tend  toward  the  general  principle 
that  every  class-type  of  vertebrates,  and  every  ordinal  type 
of  invertebrates,  has  been  introduced  upon  the  earth  in  the 
line  of  succession  indicated  by  its  rank,  and  there  is  an  d 
priori  improbability  of  the  existence  of  so  high  a  type  of 
organization  as  we  find  in  birds— and  birds  of  the  size  that 
these  must  have  been — at  a  time  when  the  reptilian  type 
had  scarcely  reached  its  culmination. 

Moreover,  the  Pterodactyls  have  made  us  acquainted 
with  the  existence  and  characters  of  bipedal  reptiles  in 
the  very  age  when  the  bipedal  footprints  of  the  Connecti- 
cut sandstone  were  impressed.     It  should  be  noted,  also, 


THE  REIGN   OF  REPTILES. 


183 


that  the  Rhynchosaurus  of  the  Trias  was  a  three-toed  bi- 
pedal reptile,  as  was  also  the  Mamphorhynchus  of  the  Ju- 
rassic (Fig.  74) ;  and  some  three-toed  bipedal  tracks  of  the 
Wealden  have  also  been  referred  to  reptiles.  Professor 
Cope,  of  Philadelphia,  the  most  accomplished  herpetologist 
of  our  country,  has  very  recentlv  enunciated  the  conviction 


Fig.  73.  Ichnolites,  or  tracks  on  stone. 
[A  slab  of  sandstone  (eight  feet  by  six)  from  Turner's  Falls,  Massachusetts,  im- 
pressed with  numerous  footprints  of  bipeds,  possibly  birds.    The  tracks  indi- 
cate ten  or  twelve  individuals  of  various  sizes.    Di&overed  by  Dr.  James  Deane, 
of  Greenfield,  Massachusetts,  lS4:j.l 


184 


SKETCHES   OF  CUE  AT  ION. 


that  the  so-called  bird-tracks  of  the  Connecticut  sandstone 
were  mostly  made  by  Bathygnathus,  a  reptile  to  which  I 
have  already  alluded.  One  fact,  however,  of  comparative- 
ly recent  discovery  I  must  not  omit  to  mention.  Among 
the  lithographic  schists  of  Solenhofen,  in  Bavaria,  have 
been  exhumed  the  remains  of  a  vertebrate  possessing 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  both  birds  and  reptiles. 
The  tail,  which  is  somewhat  elongated,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  reptiles  of  the  same  age,  is  seven  inches  in  length, 
and  consists  of  twenty  vertebras,  but  is  furnished  with  a 


Fig.  74.  Ramphorhynchus  (restored).    One  quarter  natural  size." 

r 

row  of  quils  along  each  side.  The  metacarpal  bones  are 
four  in  number,  instead  of  two  or  three,  as  in  birds,  and 
the  pelvis  is  also  decidedly  reptilian.  Whether  bird  or 
reptile,  paleontologists  have  well  hesitated  to  decide.  Pro- 
fessor Dana  is  fully  convinced  that  we  ought  to  regard  it 
as  a  "  herpetoid"  bird,  exhibiting  a  transition  from  the  low- 
er to  the  upper  type,  a  composite  type  destined  in  the  next 
period  to  be  decomposed  into  two  distinct  class  types. 
Even  if  Ave  regard  the  Archmoptenyx  as  more  bird  than 
reptile,  and  admit  Sat  beings  of  frhis  structure  may  have 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  185 

lived  at  one  time  upon  the  mud  flats  of  Connecticut,  it 
does  not  yet  follow  that  the  footprints  under  considera- 
tion were  impressed  by  typical  birds  like  those  to  which 
these  tracks  have  generally  been  attributed.  [See  Appen- 
dix, Note  VI.] 

I  am  led,  therefore,  to  dissent  from  the  conclusions  of 
Dr.  Hitchcock,  and  to  contemplate  the  tridactyl  footprints 
described  by  him  as  the  vestiges  of  reptiles — perhaps  orni- 
thoid  reptiles — whose  exact  organization  has  not  yet  been 
ascertained.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the  wonders  of  geology 
that  so  many  thousands  of  footprints  should  have  been 
preserved  in  the  sandstones  of  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  so  very  few  bones  discovered  of  the  creatures 
which  made  them.  In  fact,  the  only  traces  of  bones  thus 
far  known  were  discovered  in  1820  at  East  Windsor,  and 
publicly  noticed  by  Professor  Nathan  Smith,  and  more  mi- 
nutely described  in  1855  by  Dr.  Wyman.  These  bones 
were  hollow,  like  those  of  birds,  and  were  thought  to  yield 
some  support  to  the  bird-track  theory.  But,  besides  the 
presumption  that  the  first  birds  would  not  possess  this  en- 
dowment of  the  higher  and  typical  families  of  the  class,  it 
is  well  known  that  many  Jurassic  reptiles — the  Dinosau- 
rians — were  equally  possessed  of  hollow  bones.  The  im- 
perfect condition  of  these  few  remains,  however,  renders  it 
impossible  to  decide  upon  their  affinities. 

The  number  and  character  of  these  footprints  are  truly 
wonderful.  Dr.  Hitchcock  formed  a  grand  museum  at  Am- 
herst  College,  containing  eight  thousand  tracks.  In  his  re- 
port on  the  "  Ichnology  of  New  England,"  he  figured  and 
described  from  their  footprints  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  nineteen  species  of  animals,  of  which  thirty-one  are  re- 
garded as  birds,  and  forty-seven  as  reptiles  and  batrachi- 
ans.  These  footprints  occur  in  regular  series,  extending 
sometimes  a  distance  of  several  feet  over  the  exposed  sur- 


186 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


face  of  the  rock  (see  Fig.  73).  Series  of  tracks  of  various 
sizes  and  species  often  traverse  the  same  slab.  Dr.  Deane 
sent  to  the  British  Museum,  in  1844,  three  slabs  covered 
with  footmarks,  one  of  which  is  eight  feet  long  and  six  feet 
wide,  and  contains  over  seventy  tracks  made  by  ten  or 
twelve  different  individuals.  Professor  Marsh  is  at  this 
moment  engaged  in  forming  a  grand  standard  collection  of 
these  footprints  for  the  museum  of  Yale  College,  and  has  al- 
ready created  a  collection  second  only  to  that  at  Amherst. 

The  largest  tracks  thus  far  observed  are  twenty  inches 
in  length,  and  were  made  by  a  reptile  which  had  a  stride 
of  three  feet,  and  appears  to  have  walked  like  a  biped,  only 
occasionally  bringing  his  fore  feet  to  the  ground.  One  of 
the  specimens  of  this  species  in  the  Amherst  cabinet  is  a 
slab  thirty  feet  long,  containing  eleven  tracks.  A  slab  in 
the  British  Museum  is  impressed  by  footprints  fifteen  inches 
in  length,  forming  a  consecutive  series  of  five  or  six,  and 
being  from  four  to  five  feet  apart.  Whether  bird  or  Sau- 
rian, it  must  have  been  a  formidable  beast  to  be  seen  strid- 
ing along  the  beach.  Such  populations  once  swarmed  upon 
the  plains  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  now  vocal  with  the 
hum  of  civilized  life. 

It  is  a  solemn  and  impressive  thought  that  the  footprints 
of  these  dumb  and  senseless  creatures  have  been  preserved 
in  all  their  perfection  for  thousands  of  ages,  while  so  many 
of  the  works  of  man  which  date  but  a  century  back  have 
been  obliterated  from  the  records  of  time.  Kings  and  con- 
querors have  marched  at  the  head  of  armies  across  conti- 
nents, and  piled  up  aggregates  of  human  suffering  and  ex- 
perience to  the  heavens,  and  all  the  physical  traces  of  their 
march  have  totally  disappeared;  but  the  solitary  biped 
which  stalked  along  the  margins  of  a  New  England  inlet 
before  the  human  race  was  born,  pressed  footprints  in  the 
soft  and  shifting  sand  which  the  rising  and  sinking  of  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  187 

continent  could  not  wipe  out.  The  blood  of  the  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  who  fell  on  the  hundred  fierce- 
ly-contested fields  of  the  "  Great  Rebellion,"  and  the  traces 
of  the  manful  struggles  which  they  waged,  were  all  washed 
out  by  the  next  spring  rains,  while  even  the  ripple-marks 
of  the  age  of  Saurians,  and  the  impression  of  the  rain-drops 
of  the  passing  shower,  are  perpetuated  in  all  their  distinct- 
ness through  ages.  Man's  history  is  not  written  on  rocks 
and  river  shores.  His  monuments  are  not  footmarks  im- 
printed on  the  soil  and  sands  of  earth,  but  achievements  of 
moral  and  intellectual  labor,  less  perishable  than  the  visible 
records  of  the  ancient  Saurians,  because  inwrought  into  the 
lineaments  of  the  indissoluble  soul. 

Even  the  imperishability  of  the  records  of  the  long  ex- 
tinct reptile  suggests  honor,  and  encouragement,  and  hope 
to  the  mind  of  man.  For  what  are  these  Saurian  footprints 
so  carefully  preserved,  when  man  is  the  only  intelligence 
that  can  duly  ponder  their  significance  ?  Are  they  not  the 
materials  of  thought  which  Providence  has  kindly  stored 
for  a  thinking  race?  words  of  revelation  touching  the 
vast  movements  in  which  he  has  been  concerned  ?  gleams 
of  light,  which  stream  far  down  the  avenues  of  the  past,  and 
disclose  to  our  astonished  eyes  embodied  forms  moving 
like  spectres  of  night  across  the  marshes  and  along  the 
shores  of  mid-eternity  ?  Well  might  the  heavenly-minded 
Hitchcock  symbolize  these  teachings  by  the  hinging  of  a 
pile  of  rocky  leaves  into  the  similitude  of  a  book.  And 
happily  did  chance  or  Providence  direct  the  building  of 
some  of  the  sheets  of  this  rocky  volume  into  the  walls  of 
the  University  at  Middletown,  where  the  student,  wearied 
and  befogged  in  the  perplexities  of  human  dialects,  could 
look  upward  to  the  library-stones  of  his  ahiw  mater,  and 
refresh  his  soul  with  the  interpretation  of  the  language  of 
the  Omniscient. 


188 


SKETCHES    OF  CREATION. 


I  hasten  to  the  conclusion  of  my  sketch.  This  reptile- 
producing  age  of  the  world  was  fruitful  in  the  varied  forms 
of  gigantic  lizards  and  crocodiles.  To  the  former  belong 
Durydorus  serride?is,  and  probably  Sanropus  primcevus  of 
the  New  Red  Sandstone  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Bathygna- 
thus  borealis  (as  before  stated)  of  similar  rocks  in  Nova 
Scotia.  The  crocodiles  of  the  earlier  epoch  of  the  Jurassic 
Age  came  upon  the  earth  in  herds.  They  mostly  possessed 
the  peculiarity  of  having  their  vertebrae  concave  before  and 
behind,  like  those  of  fishes — a  character  for  which  the  term 
amphicoelian  has  been  invented  by  Owen.  A  few,  as  the 
Streptospondylus,  were  exceptional  among  vertebrates,  in 
having  their  vertebrae  convex  before  and  concave  behind 
(opisthocoelian),  while  the  rule  among  all  existing  animals 
of  this  family  is  to  have  the  vertebrae  concave  before  and 
convex  behind  (procoelian). 

The  most  gigantic  of  all  reptiles  that  ever  crawled  over 
the  face  of  the  earth  or  swam  in  its  waters  were  those  of 
the  family  of  Dinosaurians,  whose  elongated  and  ponder- 
ous forms  must  grace  the  picture  of  Oolitic  and  Wealden 
scenes.  Of  these,  the  Megalosaurus  was  the  advance  guard, 
and  measured  forty  feet  in  length.  The  Iguanodon  and 
Pelorosaurus  followed  in  the  Wealden  epoch,  the  former  of 
which  was  sixty  feet  in  length  and  the  latter  seventy! 
Turtles,  the  highest  order  of  reptiles,  made  their  advent  in 
small  numbers  toward  the  close  of.the  Jurassic  Age,  but 
never  flourished  in  abundance  till  after  the  reign  of  gigan- 
tic saurians.  Just  as  the  curtain  was  falling  on  the  scenes 
and  actors  of  this  wonderful  drama  of  reptilian  life,  two  or 
three  small  mammals  ran  upon  the  stage,  and  gave  them- 
selves up  to  extinction  barely  in  time  to  enable  us  to  say 
that  the  highest  class  of  vertebrates  added  its  contribution 
to  the  animal  variety  of  that  period  in  which  the  Alps  were 
accumulating  as  sediments  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea.     We 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  189 

have  honored  their  memories  by  bestowing  upon  them  such 
names  as  Thylacotherium,  Phascolotherium,  and  Dromathe- 
riutn,  the  latter  of  which  was  discovered  by  Professor  Em- 
mons in  North  Carolina,  and  all  of  which  occupy  a  low  po- 
sition in  their  class. 

The  Cretaceous  Age  followed  the  Jurassic,  and  the  Weald- 
en  epoch  was  its  first  chapter— unless  we  adopt  the  late 
suggestion  to  annex  it  to  the  Jurassic.  The  herpetology 
of  this  epoch  has  been  worked  out  by  that  eminent  geolo- 
gist and  good  man,  the  late  Dr.  Mantell.  Besides  its  flying 
reptiles,  and  crocodiles,  and  turtles,  here  was  the  jubilee 
of  those  enormous  saurians  just  mentioned.  The  Dinosaurs 
were  characterized  by  the  presence  of  a  medullary  cavity 
in  their  long  bones,  as  in  mammals;  by  their  short-toed 
feet,  like  those  of  the  rhinoceros ;  by  their  sacrum,  com- 
posed of  five  or  more  vertebrae  consolidated,  while  in  all 
other  reptiles  it  consists  of  two  or  less ;  by  the  articulating 
of  the  lower  jaw  so  as  to  adapt  it  for  lateral  or  grinding 
movements ;  by  the  double  head  of  their  ribs,  and  by  the 
elevation  of  the  body  from  the  ground  when  walking.  In 
all  these  characters  they  show  an  approach  toward  the  class 
of  mammals.  The  age  of  mammals  was  not  yet ;  but  it  was 
prophesied  and  heralded  from  afar  by  these  few  sentences 
transcribed  upon  the  bulletin  of  creation.  The  length  of 
the  femur  or  thigh-bone  of  the  Iguanodon  was,  when  full 
grown,  more  than  four  feet  and  a  half,  while  its  circumfer- 
ence around  the  head  was  fifty  inches,  and  around  the 
smallest  part  of  the  bone  twenty-five  inches.  The  teeth 
were  obtusely  conical  and  laterally  compressed,  so .  a§  to 
present  a  cutting  edge,  which  was  serrated,  thus  resem- 
bling the  teeth  of  the  Mexican  iguana,  from  which  the  fos- 
sil reptile  w^named.  It  was,  undoubtedly,  eminently  ter- 
restrial in  (Rhabits,  and  subsisted  by  browsing  from  the 
trees  of  the  time,  as  was  the  habit  of  the  mastodon  of  a 


190 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


later  period.  Twigs  of  cypresses  have  been  found  fossil  in 
its  stomach ;  and  Dr.  Mantell  possessed  a  jaw  in  which  the 
teeth  had  been  worn  down  by  trituration  of  food  to  half 
their  original  length. 

With  peculiar  pleasure  I  turn  now- to  results  of  the  study 
of  American  cretaceous  reptiles,  which  are  no  less  brilliant 
and  no  less  marvelous  than  those  of  Mantell  and  Owen  in 
the  Old  World.  Thanks  to  the  skill  of  Dr.  Leidy  and  Pro- 
fessor Cope,  both  of  Philadelphia,  the  cretaceous  beds  of 
New  Jersey  have  been  forced  to  yield  up  the  secrets  of 
their  life-history.  We  now  know  that  while  the  chalk 
wTas  accumulating  in  Europe,  the  marshes,  and  jungles, 
and  bayous  of  the  American  shores  were  the  scene  of  as 
busy  and  intense  a  life  as  swarmed  upon  the  coasts  of  En- 
gland, France,  or  Germany.  The  Cimoliasaur  (Cimolia- 
saurus  mac/nits,  Leidy)  and  Elasmosaur  (Elasmosaurus  ori- 
entalis,  Cope)  presented  the  form  of  huge  sea-serpents  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  feet  in  length.  The  body  was  swollen 
out  to  dimensions  exceeding  those  of  an  ox,  and  was  fur- 
nished with  a  pair  of  flippers  like  the  whale.  The  neck 
and  tail  were  elongated,  and  in  the  latter  the  tail  was  flat- 
tened, and  probably  used  as  an  oar  in  sculling.  These 
were  carnivorous  monsters,  and  probably  made  fierce  war 
upon  the  feeble  representatives  of  the  waning  dynasty  of 
fishes.  The  wrecks  of  the  Mosasaur,  of  another  order  of 
reptiles,  are  strewn  along  the  ancient  coast-line  from  New 
Jersey  to  Alabama,  where,  at  Selma  and  Cahawba,  I  have 
seen  fragments  of  their  ponderous  skeletons  protruding 
from  the  face  of  the  limestone  cliffs  cut  down  by  the  Ala- 
bama River.  The  turtles  of  the  period  contributed  a 
unique  variety  to  the  reptile  fauna.  Not  less  than  twen- 
ty-two species  have  been  described  from  tJ^  cretaceous 
sands  of  New  Jersey.  Nine  of  these  wereiMfrine  "snap- 
ping turtles."    One  of  the  latter  (Euclastes  /toyops,  Cope) 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES.  191 

had  a  h^ad  twelve  inches  in  length,  indicating  a  "  snapping 
turtle"  of  the  formidable  length  of  six  feet.  The  power  of 
such  an  animal  may  be  estimated  by  comparison  with  the 
familiar  "  snapper"  of  modern  times. 

But  the  most  abundant  of  all  the  Cretaceous  reptiles  of 
the  Atlantic  coast  were  Crocodilians.  At  the  time  of  which 
we  speak  they  must  have  literally  swarmed  along  what  is 
now  the  river-front  of  Philadelphia.  They  peopled  every 
pool  and  lagoon  along  the  cretaceous  shore  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. The  Deinosaurs,  however,  were  the  great  feature  of 
the  bayou  and  the  estuary.  Like  their  kindred  of  the  Old 
World,  they  rivaled  in  bulk  the  yet  future  mammoth  and 
mastodon.  "They  exceeded  these,"  says  Professor  Cope, 
"in  their  bizarre  and  portentous  aspects;  for  some  have 
chiefly  squatted,  some  leaped  on  the  hind  limbs  like  the 
kangaroo,  and  some  stalked  on  erect  legs  like  the  great 
birds,  with  small  arms  hanging  uselessly  by  their  sides, 
and  with  bony  visage  surveying  land  and  water  from 
their  great  elevation." 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  reptiles  was  the 
Laelaps  (L.  aquilunguis,  Cope),  a  carnivorous  kangaroo-like 
quadruped  twenty-three  feet  in  length.  It  seemed  a  rude 
attempt  of  Nature  to  realize  the  notion  of  a  bird  in  the 
framework  of  an  alligator.  It  walked  entirely  on  its  hind 
limbs,  or  leaped  like  the  kangaroo.  "  Its  toes  were  long 
and  slender,  and  probably  similar  in  number  and  form  to 
those  of  a  bird  of  prey.  They  were  armed  with  flattened 
hooked  claws,  which  measured  from  ten  inches  to  a  foot  in 
length,  and,  like  those  of  the  eagle,  were  adapted  for  grab- 
bing and  tearing  prey.  The  teeth  were  adjuncts  in  this 
appropriation  of  animal  life;  they  were  curved,  knife- 
shaped,  and  crimped  or  serrate  on  the  margin,  and  adapt- 
ed like  scissors  fbr  cutting"  (Fig.  15).  This  was  the  most 
formidable  land  carnivore  of  the  continent,  and  second  to 


192 


SKETCHES    OF  CREATION. 


none  of  the  Old  World.    It  was  the  Megalosaurus  §f  Amer- 
ica. 

Another  of  the  gigantic  reptiles  which  carried  on  a  war 
of  extermination  'upon  the  fields  destined  to  be  ensan- 
guined by  the  battles   of  Trenton 
.    ''     /  and   Brandy  wine  was   the  Hadro- 

saur  {Haclrosaurus  Foulki,  Leidy). 
The  visitor  to  the  museum  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  of  Philadel- 
phia can  not  fail  to  be  impressed  by 
the  skeleton  of  one  of  these  mon- 
sters mounted  in  the  attitude  of 
browsing  from  a  cycadeous  tree. 
This  piece  of  work  is  by  the  emi- 
nent restorer  of  extinct  animals,  B. 
Waterhouse  Hawkins,  Esq.,  of  Lon- 
don, to  whose  courtesy  I  am  indebt- 
ed for  the  photographic  view  which 
adorns  the  opposite  page  (Fig.  76). 
Fig.  75.  Tooth  of  an  ancient  The  Hadrosaur  attained  the  length 

New  Jersey  Saurian  (Lcelaps  .  .         _        t  __       ,_  . 

aquihmguis),  showing  two  of  thirty  feet.  The  femur  or  thio'h- 
successors  beneath.  .  .  •      '«•'-» 

bone  was  sometimes  five  feet  in 
length,  exceeding  by  more  than  a  foot  the  maximum 
length  of  the  femur  of  the  Ignanodon  of  England,  the 
largest  of  the  hitherto  known  land  reptiles.  The  fore 
limbs  were  less  than  half  the  length  of  the  hind  limbs. 
The  form  of  the  feet  and  toes  shows  that  they  were  poorly 
adapted  for  swimming.  In  its  habitual  attitude  it  rested, 
like  the  kangaroo,  upon  its  enormous  hind  limbs  and  tail. 
With  its  supple  anterior  extremities  it  reached  upward  to 
the  foliage  of  the  tree  destined  to  afford  it  food,  and  drew 
the  branches  down  within  the  reach  of  the  grinding  jaws. 
Not  unlikely  this  land-monster  walked  at  times  upon  its 
hind  feet,  while  the  ponderous  tail  dragged  behind. 


THE  REIGN  OF  REPTILES. 


193 


Thus,  on  both  continents,  gigantic  reptiles  long  time 
swayed  the  sceptre  over  the  entire  animal  creation.  But 
their  empire  was  approaching  its  end.  One  of  those  throes 
of  Nature,  through  which  new  annexations  of  land  to  the 
continent  were  ef- 
fected, ushered  in 
the  closing  stage 
of  Mesozoic  Time. 
The  conditions  of 
life  were  changed; 
all  the  peculiar 
types  whose  histo- 
ry we  have  traced 
dropped  out  of  ex- 
istence, and  mam- 
mals assumed  the 
reins  of  empire. 
Turtles  received 
accessions  of  num- 
bers, and  serpents 
now  first  uncoiled 
their  sinuous 
lengths,  while  ba- 
trachians  made  the 
bayous  and  marsh- 
es resonant  with 
the  varied  piping 
of  a  myriad  voices. 
Among  the  latter  a  salamander,  known  asAndrias  Scheuch- 
zeri,  has  attracted  most  attention,  in  consequence  of  hav- 
ing for  a  long  time  been  regarded  as  the  skeleton  of  a  man, 
who  thus,  by  the  fossilization  of  his  remains,  was  supposed 
to  attest  the  reality  of  the  Deluge  of  Noah. 

Such  is  a  hasty  glance  at  the  Age  of  Reptiles.     Success- 


194  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

ive  phases  of  animal  life  have  swept  like  waves  over  the 
surface  of  our  planet,  but  none  has  been  more  striking  or 
more  real  than  that  which  was  dominant  through  Mesozoic 
time.  Throughout  the  whole  extent  of  Great  Britain  there 
has  not  been  known  a  single  large  reptile  during  the  human 
era ;  yet  in  the  single  era  of  the  Wealden  the  British  do- 
minions maintained  four  or  five  species  of  Dinosaurs  fifteen 
to  twenty  feet  in  length,  ten  or  twelve  Crocodilians,  Lacer- 
tians,  and  Enaliosaurs  ten  to  fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  length, 
besides  Pterosaurs  and  Turtles,  to  say  nothing  of  the  prob- 
ably numerous  species  whose  fossil  remains  have  as  yet  es- 
caped observation.  These  successive  swells  in  the  stream 
of  animal  life  are  convenient  stand-points  from  which  to 
note  the  progressive  development  of  organic  existence. 
The  history  of  reptiles,  like  that  of  fishes,  presents  some 
remarkable  exceptional  features,  which  have  a  most  im- 
portant bearing  upon  the  question  of  "development," 
which  is  taking  a  front  rank  among  the  questions  of  the 
age.  But  these  aspects  of  the  case  are  reserved  for  future 
consideration. 


GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  EMPIRE  OF  REPTILES.  195 


CHAPTER  XVH. 

THE    GEOGRAPHY   OF   THE    EMPIRE    OF   REPTILES. 

CONTINENTS  have  been  developed,  like  organisms, 
from  their  primeval  germs.  Geologic  force,  like  vital 
force,  operates  always  toward  the  accomplishment  of  some 
definite  end ;  and,  notwithstanding  its  vicissitudes,  there  is 
little  difficulty  in  perceiving  how  every  phenomenon  of  one 
age  has  been  contemplated  and  ministered  to  by  the  events 
of  all  .preceding  ages.  The  American  Continent  is  not  a 
single  upthrow  of  volcanic  force,  but  a  gradual  growth,  be- 
ginning before  the  creation  of  the  first  animals  and  plants, 
and  proceeding  by  a  certain  method  through  all  the  subse- 
quent ages  even  to  the  present,  and  receiving  from  time 
to  time  such  progressively  improved  existences  as  its  phys- 
ical circumstances  permitted.  At  first  it  was  an  angulated 
ridge  of  land  in  the  centre  of  the  present  continental  area 
(Fig.  20).  Then,  by  successive  upheavals,  belts  of  incre- 
ment were  added  on  the  southeast  and  southwest,  till  the 
ancient  ocean  has  been  narrowed  to  its  present  limits.  Like 
the  exogenous  growth  of  an  oak,  the  increase  has  been  al- 
ways upon  the  outside.  So  the  vast  continent  has  been 
built  up  and  configurated  in  accordance  with  a  method  as 
definite  as  that  which  has  shaped  the  globe  itself. 

The  empire  of  molluscs  saw  the  greater  portion  of  the 
continent  the  bed  of  the  sea.  The  reign  of  fishes  witnessed 
the  emergence  of  only  the  extreme  northeastern  and  north- 
western portions  of  the  United  States  (Fig.  55).  In  the 
earlier  part  of  the  reign  Of  reptiles  New  England  was  a 
peninsula  hemmed  in  by  the  broad  estuary  of  the  St.  Law- 


196  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

rence  on  the  north,  and  a  similar  estuary  of  the  embryo 
Connecticut  on  the  west  (Fig.  68).  Toward  the  close  of 
this  reign  the  continent  had  assumed  the  similitude  of  its 
present  form  and  extent  (Fig.  77).  The  Atlantic  coast 
stretched  from  the  neighborhood  of  New  York  City  to  the 
Delaware  River,  and  thence  southwestward  to  South  Car- 
olina, along  a  line  now  sixty  or  seventy  miles  inland.  Del- 
aware and  Chesapeake  Bays  were  consequently  out  at  sea, 
and  the  Delaware  River  emptied  into  the  Atlantic  at  Tren- 
ton. From  South  Carolina  the  shore-line  turned  gradually 
westward,  and  crossed  the  States  of  Georgia,  Alabama,*and 
Mississippi  at  the  distance  of  one  or  two  hundred  miles 
from  the  present  gulf  coast.  A  deep  bay  set  northward 
along  the  future  valley  of  the  Mississippi  River  as  far  as 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  or  beyond,  so  that  at  this  time  the 
confluence  of  those  two  rivers  was  at  their  mouth.  West 
of  the  Missouri  was  a  vast  inland  sea  or  elongated  gulf, 
which  stretched  along  the  eastern  flanks  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  This  gulf  was  perhaps  in- 
terrupted at  one  or  two  places  by  spurs  of  the  mountains. 
Into  this  gulf  emptied  the  Athabasca,  Slave,  and  Great 
Bear  Lakes.  The  upper  watershed  of  the  present  Missouri 
was  beneath  the  sea ;  and  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi  was 
more  limited  in  extent  than  that  of  the  Ohio,  which  proba- 
bly was  the  larger  stream.  West  of  this  Mediterranean 
Gulf  was  a  broad  belt  of  land  stretching  from  the  isthmus 
far  to  the  northwest,  and  probably  to  Behring's  Straits,  if 
not  across  them.  The  Pacific  coast  was  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  farther  inland  than  at  present.  Lake  Superior 
was  the  only  one  of  the  great  lakes  then  in  existence.  The 
stream  which  drained  it  wound  past  the  future  sites  of  De- 
troit, Cleveland,  and  Buffalo,  and,  plunging  over  the  escarp- 
ment near  Lewiston,  became  the  ancestor  of  the  present  St. 
Lawrence.     The  basins  of  the  other  lakes  are  the  result  of 


GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  EMPIRE  OF  REPTILES.   197 

later  geological  agencies.  Probaly  large  portions  of  Green- 
land and  other  arctic  lands  had  emerged,  besides  the  prin- 
cipal portion  of  the  West  India  Islands. 

The  climate  of  the  period  was  much  warmer  than  that 
of  the  same  localities  in  the  present  age.     Coral-builders, 
and  other  marine  animals  now  restricted  to  tropical  regions, 
then  nourished  throughout  the  whole  length  of  the  conti- 
nent, from  latitude  60°  north  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan  on 
the  south.     The  superior  warmth  of  former  ages  of  the 
world  is  probably  due,  in  some  measure,  to  the  more  highly 
heated  condition  of  the  globe— a  source  which,  through  all 
ages,  has  been  undergoing  a  gradual  diminution.     It  has 
also  been  suggested  that  the  connection  which  existed  be- 
tween the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  permitted 
the  Gulf  Stream  to  flow  through  the  centre  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  thus,  while  it  carried  a  tropical  temperature  far 
toward  the  north,  ameliorated  the  climate  of  the  regions  to 
the  east  of  it,  as  the  same  ocean  stream  now  moderates  the 
cold  of  high  latitudes  upon  European  shores.     Thus,  while 
the  Northern  States  were  terra  firma,  the  rich  cotton-fields 
of  Alabama  and  Texas  were  gathering  their  calcareous  sed- 
iments beneath  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     Fleets  might  have 
sailed  over  the  rolling  prairies  of  Kansas  and  Dacotah,  and 
the  anchor  of  the  mariner  might  have  fastened  in  the  sum- 
mit of  Pike's  Peak.    But  fleets  of  Nautili,  and  their  cousins 
the  Ammonites,  were  the  only  keels  that  plowed  that  Med- 
iterranean sea,  and  the  polyp  and  the  oyster  were  the  only 
mariners  that  cast  their  anchor  on  the  sunken  ridges.    East- 
ward, the  broad  rolling  plains  of  Illinois  and  Ohio  were 
adorned  with  a  growth  of  sub-tropical  vegetation,  and  the 
west  wind  of  even  a  winter  sky  breathed  softly  over  its 
never-fading  foliage.     But  the  shining  cities  of  the  West 
were  not  there.     The  kingly  alligator  alone  disturbed  the 
waters  of  the  Ohio.     The  railroad  car,  the  church  spire,  the 


198  SKETCHES    OF  VMEATION. 

golden  wheat,  the  thronging  population — these  all  were 
scenes  and  objects  still  shut  up  in  the  silence  and  night 
of  the  far-distant  future.  An  intelligent  being  may  have 
stood  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  pictured  to  himself  the 
shifting  scenes  of  the  next  half  million  of  years,  as  we  now 
portray  to  imagination  the  expansion  of  American  civili- 
zation, and  its  destined  continental  grasp  of  empire  a  hun- 
dred years  hence ;  but  no  intelligent  hand  impressed  its  in- 
fluence upon  the  features  fashioned  by  Nature.  An  occa- 
sional voice  of  monstrous  Deinosaur  broke  the  dreadful 
silence  of  the  broad  continent.  No  song  of  bird  was  heard- 
in  the  grove,  and  rarely  the  hum  of  insect  in  the  air.  Bland 
as  the  breezes  were,  and  seductive  the  climate,  it  was  not  a 
fit  place  for  man  to  be  in.  Frogs  and  salamanders  must 
be  his  pets — lizards  and  crocodiles  his  domestic  animals. 
Providence  reserved  him  for  a  more  finished  condition  of 
the  world. 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.  199 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

THE    REIGN    OF   MAMMALS. 

ANOTHER  cycle  of  eternity  was  past.  The  progress 
of  geological  agencies  had  brought  the  crust  of  the 
earth  to  a  tension  which  was  to  be  relieved  by  another 
collapse.  As  the  Paleozoic  Time  was  closed  by  the  sud- 
den sinking  of  the  beds  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans, 
and  the  corresponding  protrusion  of  the  ridges  of  the  Ap- 
palachians, so  the  Mesozoic  Time  was  closed  by  a  farther 
progress  in  the  same  direction.  The  ever- shrinking  nu- 
cleus necessitated  the  ever -enlarging  wrinkles  of  the  en- 
veloping crust.  The  furrows  must  deepen  and  the  folds 
must  rise.  The  uplift  which  marked  the  close  of  Mesozoic 
Time  affected  the  whole  continental  body.  It  was  not  a 
sudden  uprising  accomplished  in  a  day.  It  may  have  ex- 
tended through  a  century ;  but  it  was  an  interval  of  move- 
ments so  much  accelerated  as  to  mark  a  pretty  definite 
boundary  between  two  stages  of  continental  development 
and  two  great  periods  in  the  history  of  the  world.  During 
the  Cretaceous  Age  which  had  now  just  closed,  the  great 
Mediterranean  Gulf  represented  in  Fig.  11  had  been  broad- 
er along  its  eastern  borders,  and  continuous  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  Through  this,  perhaps,  the  Gulf  Stream  had 
coursed  to  the  Frozen  Ocean.  Now,  by  an  upheaval  of  the 
central  region,  this  gulf  was  severed  in  twain.  On  the 
south  it  retreated  to  nearly  the  modern  limits  of  the  Mex- 
ican Gulf,  while  northward  remained  an  elongated  body  of 
water,  swelling  out  in  the  central  portion  of  the  continent, 
in  two  places,  to  dimensions  exceeding  the  Caspian  and 


200 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


Black  Seas  of  the  Old  World.  Indeed,  the  area  covered 
by  this  shallow  expanse  of  deserted  and  isolated  sea-water 
was  the  Lectonia  of  the  New  World,  which,  like  the  level 
region  in  the  south  of  Russia,  once  overflowed  by  the  high- 
er waters  of  the  great  seas  which  stretch  along  the  confines 


")    ,.-;;;> 


Fig.  77.  Outlines  of  the  North  American  Continent  at  the  end  of  Mesozoic  Time. 

The  existing  boundaries  are  indicated  by  dotted  lines. 
a,  a,  a.  The  great  Tertiary  Sea,  stretching  from  the  Arctic  Ocean,  along  the  eastern 

flanks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  Texas,    b,  b.  The  great  "  Central  Plateau,"  in 

modern  times  a  worn-out  continental  area. 

of  the  two  continents,  was  destined  to  be  gradually  drained. 
The  drainage  in  both  cases  was  effected  partly  by  the  up- 
raising of  the  continent,  and  partly  by  the  bursting  of  bar- 
riers and  deepening  of  channels  at  the  point  where  the  im- 
prisoned waters  were  escaping.     But,  while  the  drainage 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.  201 

of  the  European  Lectonia  was  an  event  which  reaches  down 
within  the  grasp  of  human  tradition,  the  drainage  of  the 
American  Lectonia  was  an  event  shrouded  in  the  obscuri- 
ties of  the  pre-Adamic  ages.  Thus  again  we  discover  that 
the  "  New  World"  is  in  reality  the  oldest. 

This  broad  expanse  of  Tertiary  waters  stretched  across 
the  western  part  of  Dakotah  and  Nebraska.  At  the  same 
time,  the  Mexican  Gulf,  though  outlined  somewhat  after  the 
modern  fashion,  was  left  a  hundred  miles  more  extended 
than  at  present  on  the  west  and  north,  and  reached  its  long 
arm  up  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  beckoning  to  the  cooler  waters  of  the  North  to  come 
and  lave  its  tropic  shores.  This  arm  was  the  southern 
representative  of  the  Gulf  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  pe- 
ninsula of  Florida  was  a  coral  reef.  A  broad  belt  of  the 
Atlantic  States  to  New  York  was  yet  a  sea-bottom,  and 
the  Pacific  yet  held  possession  of  the  lowland  zone  of  the 
western  slope.  Now  the  Missouri  River  came  into  exist- 
ence, born  of  the  great  central  sea.  Still  the  Niagara  Riv- 
er thundered  away  in  an  ancient  excavation,  which,  like  the 
work  of  the  men  of  Nineveh,  was  destined  to  be  buried  be- 
neath the  rubbish  of  coming  ages,  and  lie  a  long  time  un- 
remembered.  Now  the  eastern  ranges  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains were  first  lifted  above  the  deep.  During  subsequent 
ages  they  underwent  further  upheavals,  while  the  waters 
of  the  Gulf  and  the  great  oceans  were  rolled  back  to  their 
present  positions. 

The  epoch  which  followed  the  last  great  upheaval,  and 
witnessed  the  events  transpiring  on  the  shores  of  the 
American  Mediterranean,  marked  the  dawn  of  the  present 
order  of  things.  All  subsequent  time  has  hence  been 
styled  Cenozoic.  The  populations  which  swarmed  upon 
the  earth  during  each  preceding  epoch  disappeared  in  turn, 
and  their  places  were  occupied  by  forms  generally  more 

12 


202  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

advanced.  Of  the  thousands  of  species  that  had  their  be- 
ing during  the  Paleozoic  and  Mesozoic  Ages,  not  one  has 
survived  to  the  present.  The  specific  types  are  all  extinct. 
Now,  on  the  contrary,  in  the  dawn  of  the  Cenozoic  Ages, 
a  fauna  was  created,  of  which  a  few  representatives  have 
survived  to  modern  times.  The  survivors,  however,  are 
all  marine.  Another  feature  of  the  fauna  of  this  era,  indi- 
cating the  approach  of  the  human  period,  was  the  advent 
of  multitudes  of  mammals,  a  class  of  which  man  is  the 
head.  Some  of  the  lowest  terrestrial  mammals  seem,  it  is 
true,  to  have  made  their  appearance  a  long  time  previous- 
ly in  the  Jurassic  Age,  and  perhaps  even  in  the  Triassic, 
but  nothing  more  is  seen  of  the  class  till  the  beginning  of 
the  Tertiary.  Like  the  Devonian  reptiles,  they  seem  to 
have  run  far  in  advance  of  their  class,  and  to  have  totally 
perished  for  their  temerity.  The  full  numerical  develop- 
ment and  ascendency  of  mammalian  quadrupeds  are  the 
characteristics  of  the  Tertiary  Age. 

The  immortal  George  Cuvier  was  the  first  to  bring  to 
light  abundant  relics  of  these  masters  of  a  former  world. 
The  vicinity  of  Paris  seems  to  have  been  an  ancient  bury- 
ing-place  of  extinct  quadrupeds  while  it  was  yet  the  bed 
of  the  sea.  The  bones  were  undoubtedly  transported 
thither  from  the  adjacent  land.  One  of  the  most  remark- 
able of  these  animals  was  the  Paleotherium,  a  three-hoofed 
quadruped  resembling  a  tapir,  and  attaining  the  size  of  a 
horse.  Other  quadrupeds,  which  grazed  upon  the  same 
grounds  with  the  Paleothere,  were  variously  allied  to  the 
deer,  the  peccary,  and  the  tapir.  Monkeys,  mastodons,  and 
elephants  existed  in  Europe  a  little  later,  and  these  were 
associated  with  a  huge  anomalous  quadruped  named  Di- 
notherium,  which  united  characteristics  of  the  elephant, 
hippopotamus,  tapir,  and  dugong.  The  sloth  and  opossum 
tribes  also,  which  are  now  confined  to  other  continents, 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.,  203 

had  their  representatives  in  Europe  during  this  period. 
The  prevailing  types  of  quadrupeds  were  thick-skinned — 
Pachyderms — and  cud -chewing — Ruminants.  The  hog 
and  the  horse  began  to  exist  in  the  middle  of  the  Tertiary ; 
and  somewhat  later  appear,  either  in  Europe  or  Asia,  the 
cat,  dog,  weasel,  hare,  mink,  hyena,  camel,  antelope,  musk- 
deer,  sheep,  and  ox — of  the  latter,  several  species.  The  Si- 
vatherium  was  an  elephantine  stag,  having  four  horns  and 
probably  a  long  proboscis.  It  is  supposed  to  have  had  the 
bulk  of  an  elephant,  and  greater  height.  This  monster 
dwelt  in  southeastern  Asia.  Many  other  genera,  quite  dis- 
tinct from  existing  forms,  have  had  their  former  existence 
disclosed  by  the  patient  researches  of  the  comparative  an- 
atomist. 

America  was  also  a  range  of  gigantic  quadrupeds,  while 
the  adjacent  seas  were  the  abode  of  mammalian  forms  al- 
lied to  the  whale.  Of  these,  the  one  best  known  is  the 
Zeuglodon,  whose  bones  are  scattered  over  portions  of  the 
cotton-lands  of  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  South 
Carolina.  It  is  a  striking  sight  to  stumble  over  vertebrae 
a  foot  and  a  half  long  and  a  foot  in  diameter,  or  to  see 
them  plowed  up  from  the  black  soil  where  they  had  been 
mouldering  ever  since  that  soil  was  a  sea-bottom.  Yet 
these  bones  were  once  so  numerous  in  Southern  Alabama 
that  they  were  gathered  and  burned  for  lime,  and  laid  in 
walls  for  fences.  I  have  myself  seen  them  used  for  andi- 
rons, and  for  building  the  steps  of  a  stile  over  the  door- 
yard  fence.  This  animal  was  about  seventy  feet  in  length. 
The  skeleton  on  exhibition  in  Wood's  Museum,  at  Chicago, 
is  for  the  most  part  a  genuine  representation  of  the  frame- 
work of  this  Tertiary,  alligator-like  whale.  Some  of  the 
vertebrae  were  wanting  in  this  specimen;  and  in  the  at- 
tempt to  restore  the  missing  parts,  the  paleo-artist  has  pos- 
sibly exceeded  the  bounds  of  truth,  and  given  us  a  skeleton 


204  ^SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

of  greater  length  than  the  facts  justify.  After  a  personal 
and  critical  examination  of  the  specimen,  however,  I  feel 
bound  to  say  that  this  prodigiously  elongated  creature, 
that  visitors  have  so  long  seen  coiled  about  one  of  the 
apartments  of  the  museum,  is  as  near  a  representation  of 
the  truth  of  nature  as  is  likely  to  be  attained.  The  skele- 
ton possesses  one  hundred  and  eighteen  vertebrae,  of  which 
ninety-one  are  genuine,  and  twenty-one  factitious.  The 
neck  embraces  six  vertebra?.  There  are  thirty-six  pairs  of 
ribs.  The  cranium  is  six  feet  long ;  the  jaws  are  armed 
each  with  five  grinding  teeth  on  each  side,  preceded  by  two 
premolars  and  one  incisor  on  each  side  of  the  middle.  The 
epiphyses  of  the  vertebrae — that  is,  their  detached  extrem- 
ities— being  unconsolidated  with  the  bodies  of  the  verte- 
brae, prove  that  the  individual  was  still  immature.  This 
examination  was  kindly  authorized  by  Col.  Wood,  the  pro- 
prietor. We  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Koch,  of  St.  Louis,  for  the 
first  restoration  of  the  Zeuglodon,  a  specimen  of  which  was 
exhibited,  a  number  of  years  ago,  under  the  name  of  Hy- 
drarchos,  or  Water-king,  in  Barnum's  Museum  in  New 
York. 

Far  toward  the  northwest,  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Up- 
per Missouri,  were  the  cemeteries  of  American  quadrupeds. 
The  shores  of  the  great  inland  seas  already  described  seem 
to  have  been  the  favorite  haunts  of  the  dominant  tribes  of 
the  continent,  while  swarms  of  humbler  creatures  bathed 
in  their  waters,  or  burrowed  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom.  At 
first  these  waters  possessed  all  the  saltness  of  the  sea  of 
which  they  were  the  residuum ;  but,  by  degrees,  the  perpet- 
ual drainage,  replaced  only  by  fresh  waters  from  the  clouds, 
changed  them  first  to  a  brackish,  and  then  to  a  fresh  condi- 
tion. This  progressive  change  is  shown  by  the  varying 
nature  of  the  fossil  remains  imbedded  in  the  sediments.  At 
the  bottom  we  find  the  relics  of  marine  animals ;  in  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.  205 

middle,  the  vestiges  of  brackish-water  life ;  and  in  the  last 
deposits,  only  relics  of  fresh  waters  mingled  with  washings 
from  the  land. 

On  the  White  River,  in  the  Territory  of  Dakotah,  in  the 
region  where  it  approaches  nearest  to  the  Big  Cheyenne, 
are  the  Mauvaises  Terres,  or  Bad  Lands,  where  Nature 
seems  to  have  collected  together  the  relics  of  a  geological 
age,  and  buried  them  in  one  vast  sepulchre. 

The  country  to  the  west  and  southwest  of  Fort  Pierre, 
for  some  hundreds  of  miles,  is  an  elevated,  gently  undu- 
lating prairie,  through  which  the  streams  have  cut  deep 
gorges  for  their  passage  to  the  larger  rivers.  It  is  a  vast 
basin  filled  with  the  still  horizontal  and  semi-indurated  sed- 
iments of  an  inland  sea.  The  wear  of  the  weather  has  left 
many  deep  scars  on  the  face  of  the  country,  and  the  Bad 
Lands  present  us  with  the  mere  ruins  of  a  formation  which 
was  once  continuous.  The  whole  country  is  treeless  and 
desolate.  The  soil  beneath  the  feet  of  the  traveler  conceals 
the  bones  of  the  numerous  populations  which  enjoyed  ex- 
istence in  the  earlier  Tertiary  epochs.  The  whole  scene 
has  the  air  of  the  domain  of  death  and  solitude.  On  catch- 
ing a  glimpse  of  the  Bad  Lands  proper,  a  most  impressive 
exhibition  presents  itself.  Here,  in  the  surface  of  a  vast 
plain,  is  a  sunken  area  thirty  miles  wide  and  ninety  miles 
long  (Fig.  78).  From  the  bottom  of  this  sunken  plain  rise 
domes,  and  pinnacles,  and  monuments,  and  massive  walls, 
which  persuade  the  traveler  that  he  is  about  to  witness  the 
movements  and  listen  to  the  hum  of  a  vast  city.  In  the 
language  of  Dr.  Evans — an  eminent  geologist  who  almost 
"  dwelt  among  the  tombs"  of  the  ancient  world,  as  they  lie 
stretched  out  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  shores — 
"  these  rocky  piles,  in  their  endless  succession,  assume  the 
appearance  of  massive  artificial  structures,  decked  out 
with   all  the    accessories   of  buttress   and-  turret,  arched 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.  207 

doorway  and  clustered  shaft,  pinnacle,  and  finial,  and  ta- 
pering spire." 

On  a  nearer  approach  the  illusion  reluctantly  vanishes, 
and  all  the  fancied  architecture  is  resolved  into  piles  of 
hardened  clay  and  sand.  These  rise  from  the  bottom  of 
the  vale  to  the  height  of  fifty,  one  hundred,  and  two  hun- 
dred feet,  showing  along  their  vertical  or  sloping  sides  the 
varied  courses  of  masonry  of  which  they  are  composed.  In 
the  hundreds  of  towers  and  isolated  masses  that  rise  from 
this  vale  of  solitude,  the  order  of  the  courses  is  the  same ; 
and  this  agrees  with  the  arrangement  in  the  solid  walls 
which  circumscribe  the  valley.  A  thousand  storms  have 
washed  the  slopes,  and  furrowed  them  into  the  similitude 
of  fluted  shafts  and  clustered  columns,  which,  at  the  top, 
bear  sometimes  a  brown  entablature  of  overhanging  grass, 
or  continue  upward  into  tower  and  minaret.  The  bottom 
of  the  vale  is  an  earth  of  chalky  whiteness,  baked  by  the 
sun,  and  utterly  destitute  of  vegetation.  The  water  which 
oozes  out  of  the  foundation-wall  of  the  prairie  is  brackish 
and  unpalatable.  In  winter,  the  wind  and  snow  rush 
through  the  lanes  and  corridors  of  this  city  of  the  dead  in 
eddying  whirls,  while  the  withered  grasses  and  the  voice- 
less and  motionless  solitude,  together  with  the  relentless 
frost  and  never-tiring  storm,  make  the  place  the  realization 
of  utter  bleakness  and  desolation.  In  summer  the  scorch- 
ing sun  literally  bakes  the  clays  which  have  been  kneaded 
by  the  frosts  and  thaws  of  spring,  and  the  daring  explorer 
of  the  scene  finds  no  tree  or  shrub  to  shelter  him  from  the 
fervid  rays  poured  down  from  above,  and  reflected  from  the 
white  walls  which  tower  around  him,  and  the  white  floor 
which  almost  blisters  his  feet.  «. 

But  the  most  impressive  feature  of  the  scene  is  the  mul- 
titude of  fossil  bones  which  appear  built  into  the  massive 
masonry  of  this  mimic   architecture.     The  wearing  and 


208  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

crumbling  of  the  elements  roll  them  out  of  their  long  rest- 
ing-places, and  they  lie  strewn  over  the  bottom  of  the  val- 
ley. The  traveler  feels  like  one  walking  upon  the  floor  of 
a  long-deserted  and  ruined  vault.  Skulls,  and  jaws,  and 
teeth,  and  thigh-bones  lie  scattered  around.  Death  has 
indeed  held  carnival  here,  and  this  is  the  deserted  scene 
of  his  ghastly  repast.  But  what  long  ages  have  glided  by 
since  these  flesh-covered  bones  were  slain  and  gathered  to 
the  charnel-house  !  Scarcely  a  form  familiar  to  the  anato- 
mist reveals  itself.  Here  are,  indeed,  the  forms  of  turtles, 
large  and  small,  with  all  the  sutures  of  their  protecting 
carapaces  distinctly  preserved ;  but,  though  turtles,  they 
are  unknown  species,  and  some  attain  a  size  which,  in 
their  present  condition,  must  weigh  nearly  a  ton.  Here 
lie  the  bones  of  rhinoceroses — known  certainly  by  their 
teeth — but.  different  from  any  existing  species.  As  for  the 
rest  of  these  remains,  we  do  not  even  know  the  genera  to 
which  they  belonged.  They  present  us  with  strange  com- 
binations of  characters.  One  seems  intermediate  between 
a  tapir  and  a  rhinoceros,  while  the  canine  and  incisor  teeth 
ally  it  likewise  with  the  horse.  One  of  the  commonest 
skulls  has  the  grinding  teeth  of  the  elk  and  deer,  and  the 
canines  of  a  hog.  It  evidently  belonged  to  a  race  which 
lived  both  on  flesh  and  vegetables,  and  yet  chewed  the  cud 
like  our  cloven-footed  grazers.  This  has  been  named  Oreo- 
don.  One  of  the  most  wonderful  of  the  beings  entombed 
here  is  the  Titanotherium,  first  discovered  by  Dr.  Prout,  of 
St.  Louis.  It  somewhat  resembles  a  hornless  rhinoceros, 
but  is  much  more  massive  in  its  proportions.  One  of  the 
jaws  seen  by  Dr.  Evans  had  a  length  of  five  feet  along  the 
crowns  of  the  teeth,  and  the  skeleton  of  another  individual 
was  eighteen  and  a  half  feet  in  length  and  nine  feet  in 
height.  Of  all  the  relics  uncovered  in  this  ancient  ceme- 
tery, it  is  remarkable  that  but  one  carnivorous  quadruped 


TffE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS.  209 

has  been  noticed.  The  fauna  of  the  period  was  eminently 
characterized  by  the  presence  of  pachyderms  and  rumi- 
nants, and  this  in  the  same  age  when  Europe  was  popula- 
ted by  a  large  admixture  of  the  higher  carnivores. 

I  said  this  valley  of  death  has  the  appearance  of  a  sub- 
sidence in  the  wide  extended  plain.  The  suggestion  is  so 
natural  that  one  almost  irresistibly  regards  it  as  a  vast 
sunken  grave,  where  the  slain  of  a  geological  convulsion 
have  been  gathered  together  and  decently  entombed,  and 
the  earth  has  at  last  settled  down  upon  their  crumbling 
remains.  A  better  judgment,  however,  discovers  the  val- 
ley to  be  the  work  of  excavating  waters.  Gigantic  as  the 
scale  of  such  digging  must  appear,  the  geologist  is  ac- 
quainted with  other  examples  immeasurably  more  sub- 
lime. They  belong  to  the  phenomena  of  the  Post-Tertiary 
Age.  These  towers,  then,  have  not  been  built  up,  but  have 
been  left  in  relief,  like  the  figures  on  the  sculptor's  marble. 
Torrents  of  rain  have  wielded  the  instruments  that  have 
fashioned  the  Titanic  architecture. 

From  this  Golgotha,  if  we  wend  our  way  northward 
some  hundreds  of  miles  nearer  the  sources  of  the  Missouri, 
we  find  ourselves  standing  again  upon  the  deposits  of  a 
vast  inland  sea — a  sea  which  was  still  remaining  when  the 
Bad  Lands  were  drained.  Around  the  shores  of  this  far 
northern  basin  of  water  lived,  in  a  later  age,  the  rhinoce- 
ros, the  elephant,  the  mastodon,  the  camel,  the  horse,  the 
beaver,  the  wild-cat,  the  wolf,  the  land  tortoise,  and  other 
genera  of  quadrupeds  now  extinct.  In  this  lake  the  Mis- 
souri took  its  rise,  while  the  Yellowstone  and  other  rivers 
poured  into  it  the  drainage  of  the  region  beyond,  and  trans- 
ported the  relics  of  then  existing  races,  with  other  sedi- 
ments, to  the  burial-place  from  which  they  have  recently 
been  exhumed. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  make  known  to  the  reader 


210  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

that  we  are  indebted  for  our  knowledge  of  the  details  of 
the  geology  of  these  remote  and  wilderness  regions  to  the 
energy  and  science  of  two  young  geologists,  Messrs.  Meek 
and  Hay  den,  and  especially  to  Mr.  F.  B.  Meek,  for  the  pro- 
duction of  paleontological  results  which  vie  in  thorough- 
ness and  exactitude  with  the  best  work  ever  done  in  any 
country.  In  the  department  of  mammalian  paleontology 
Dr.  Leidy  is  our  great  authority — the  Owen  of  America. 
These  regions  were  first  visited  in  1850  by  Mr.  Thaddeus 
Culbertson,  under  the  joint  auspices  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  and  his  brother  Alexander.  Later  researches 
were  instituted  by  Professor  James  Hall,  and  by  Dr.  D.  D. 
Owen  while  in,  charge  of  the  geological  survey  of  the 
Northwest,  under  the  auspices  of  the  general  government. 

Such  are  some  of  the. phenomena  of  the  Age  of  Mam- 
mals. It  was  an  interval  of  time  when,  on  all  sides  of  the 
globe,  progressive  improvements  had  brought  our  earth  to 
a  condition  suited  for  higher  existences,  and  the  reptiles 
which  reigned  in  the  preceding  age  were  beckoned  into 
the  background  or  driven  to  extinction.  Who  that  has 
observed  the  indications  of  gradual  but  systematic  ad- 
vance in  animal  forms  through  the  ages  of  the  world  can 
resist  the  conviction  that  man  was  contemplated  as  the 
termination  of  the  perfecting  series  ? 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  so  many  genera  now  extinct 
from  the  continent,  but  living  in  other  quarters  of  the 
globe,  were  once  abundant  on  the  plains  of  North  Amer- 
ica. Various  species  of  the  horse  have  dwelt  here  for 
ages,  and  the  question  reasonably  arises  whether  the  wild 
horses  of  the  Pampas  may  not  have  been  indigenous. 
Here,  too,  the  camel  found  a  suitable  home ;  but  he  has 
disappeared  before  the  intellect  dawned  which  could  do- 
mesticate him  and  utilize  his  instincts.  On  the  Oriental 
continent  the  higher  types  of  quadrupeds  were  now  exist- 


THE  REIGN  OF  MAMMALS. 


211 


ing,  and  it  looked  as  if  the  apex  of  improvement  would 
first  be  reached  in  that  quarter  of  the  world. 

The  uplift  of  the  American  and  "European  continents  to 


Fig.  79.  D.  D.  Owen. 

their  present  levels  marked  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  Age. 
Europe  had  been  an  archipelago ;  but  America  had  long- 
possessed  its  destined  outline,  and  lacked  only  the  belt 
which  was  now  added  along  the  two  oceans  and  the  Gulf. 
The  continent  was  now  complete.  What  next  could  ensue 
but  the  creation  of  man,  and  the  final  consummation  of  the 
grand  work  of  creation  ?  Human  judgment  would  now 
have  proceeded  to  the  finishing  stroke ;  but  Infinite  Wis- 


212  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

dom  saw  that  the  world  would  be  improved  by  subjecting 
it  to  one  more  ordeal,  and  then  should  burst  upon  it  the 
effulgence  of  that  intellect  whicl^  characterizes  and  enno- 
bles the  Age  of  Man. 


THE  EEIGN  OF  ICE.  213 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE     REIGN    OF    ICE. 

WHEN  the  continent  of  North  America,  which  had 
been  growing  through  unnumbered  ages  by  contin- 
ual annexations  of  land  wrested  from  the  dominion  of  the 
sea,  had  finally  attained  the  dimensions  and  outline  des- 
tined to  endure  through  the  human  era — when  the  great 
mountain  axes  had  been  uplifted,  and  the  broad  river 
streams  were  rolling  the  drainage  of  the  valleys  and  hill- 
slopes  to  the  sea — when  the  horse  and  the  camel,  the  ele- 
phant, the  bear,  and  other  quadrupeds  which  were  to  char- 
acterize the  epoch  of  man,  had  assumed  their  stations  on 
the  land — when  the  atmosphere  was  populated  by  birds 
and  insects  which  were  destined  in  a  coming  age  to  be 
startled  by  the  presence  of  a  dominant  intelligence — when 
the  beech,  the  tulip-tree,  the  linden,  and  the  buttonwood 
had  taken  their  places  on  the  jungle's  margin  and  the  high- 
land slope,  and  the  sorrowing  willow  had  begun  to  weep 
above  the  flowing  waters  of  the  sedge-bordered  stream — 
when  the  whole  face  of  Nature  seemed  fitted  and  expect- 
ant of  the  crowning  work  of  creation,  what  should  prevent 
the  divine  Artificer  from  summoning  man  upon  the  scene 
to  begin  the  labor  of  his  earthly  life  ?  To  a  finite  intelli- 
gence the  preparation  was  complete.  To  the  eye  of  Om- 
niscience one  more  revolution  was  needed.  The  coming 
man  must  tarry  without  the  doors  of  the  temple  of  life 
through  yet  another  geological  aeon. 

To  this  time  the  evolution  of  the  continent  had  proceed- 
ed by  elevations  and  subsidences  of  the  regions  lying  in 


214  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

the  middle  latitudes,  the  resultant  of  which  movements 
was  the  establishment  of  a  vast  area  of  dry  land  extending 
over  all  that  portion  of  North  America  covered  by  the 
temperate  zone.  The  northern  regions  were  still  the  bed 
of  a  vast  circumpolar  ocean.  Now,  in  turn,  the  high  north- 
ern latitudes  experience  an  unwonted  uplift.  Arctic  lands 
raise  high  their  dripping  heads  above  the  temperate  waters 
of  the  polar  zone.  The  climate  of  the  whole  northern  hem- 
isphere feels  the  change.  No  moving  currents  can  now 
bear  torrid  warmth  to  the  frozen  sea,  and  return  the  colder 
waters  to  the  equatorial  zone.  The  stable  land  bears 
sternly  the  vicissitudes  of  the  clime,  smiling  coldly  in  the 
slanting  rays  of  a  summer's  sun,  and  gloaming  darkly  be- 
neath the  auroral  shimmering  of  arctic  midnight.  The  ac- 
cumulated cold  of  years  binds  all  the  northern  latitudes  in 
indissoluble  bonds  of  ice.  The  northern  blast  bears  frost 
along  the  vales  which  had  never  felt  its  power.  The  lim- 
pid streams  grow  torpid,  and  then  rest  in  a  long  hibernal 
sleep.  The  verdure  of  forest  .and  plain,  touched  by  the 
first  breath  of  winter,  shrinks  away,  and  the  sere  and  black- 
ened leaf  hangs  where  there  had  been  perennial  green.  The 
ponderous  tread  of  the  mastodon  turns  from  the  withered 
meadow  to  the  frozen  jungle,  and  the  shivering  tapir 
yields  himself  a  victim  to  the  strange  rigors  of  the  climate. 
The  snows  of  many  winters  are  gathered  on  the  slopes  of 
northern  America,  and  the  summer's  sun  suffices  but  to 
change  them  to  a  bed  of  porous  ice.  Glaciers  brood  over 
all  the  land,  and  Alpine  desolation  reigns  without  a  rival 
over  half  the  continent.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  fair  vales 
which  we  thought  just  ready  for  the  occupancy  of  the  hu- 
man race. 

The  marks  of  this  stupendous  glacier  are  still  visible. 
As  in  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps,  the  expansion  produced  by 
a  summer's  warmth  would,  tend  to  create  a  motion  in  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  ICE.  215 

margins  of  the  ice-field.  The  northern  limit  was  chained 
by  eternal  frost  to  its  rocky  bed.  The  southern  only  was 
free  to  move,  and  the  whole  expansion  would  be  developed 
along  the  southern  border.  The  sliding  movement  of  in- 
calculable tons  of  ice  would  plow  the  soil  beneath.  Rock- 
fragments,  pebbles,  and  gravel,  frozen  in  the  under  surface, 
were  carried  forward  by  the  moving  mass,  while  the  under- 
lying rocky  surfaces  were  ground  away,  or  polished,  or 
scored  in  parallel  furrows  by  the  irresistible  agency  of  the 
glacier  (Fig.  80).  These  phenomena  are  noticeable  all  over 
the  Northern  States  wherever  the  "  bed  rock"  is  exposed 
to  view.  The  bold  shore  of  the  north  side  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior his  been  extensively  carved  and  modified  by  this  re- 
sistless action.  At  Marquette,  upon  the  south  shore,  are 
some  striking  and  instructive  illustrations.  A  low  dome 
of  metamorphic  talcoze  schist  rises  a  few  feet  above  the 
surface  of  the  water  at  the  shore,  nearly  in  front  of  the 
Jackson  house,  which  bears  the  imperishable  tracery  of  its 
conflict  with  the  continental  glacier.  The  whole  surface  is 
smoothed  as  with  a  carpenter's  plane  and  sand-paper.  The 
undulations  in  the  surface  are  scoured  as  neatly  as  the  level 
and  more  prominent  portions.  Rising  from  beneath  the 
water  on  the  northern  side  can  be  seen  numerous  grooves 
and  scratches,  which  glide  up  the  smoothed  northern  slope, 
and  extend  continuously  across  the  summit  to  the  southern 
side.  There  are  two  principal  sets  of  these  striae.  One  of 
them  extends  nearly  north  and  south,  the  other  northeast 
and  southwest.  Near  this  place,  and  close  by  the  main 
street  as  it  passes  out  of  town,  is  an  isolated  outlying  mass 
of  the  same  kind  of  roCk,  which  has  been  left  standing  out 
boldly  after  the  destructive  agencies  that  have  passed  over 
the  surface  had  plowed  away  all  the  surrounding  portions 
of  the  formation.  This  stubborn  mass  stands  like  a  sullen 
bulwark,  defying  the   most  desperate   attacks   of  ice,  or 


THE  REIGN  OF  ICE.  217 

storm,  or  flood.  But  its  lowering  brow  shows  the  deep 
scars  of  many  a  fierce  conflict.  The  attacks  have  evident- 
ly proceeded  from  the  north.  On  this  side  the  perpendic- 
ular walls  are  smoothed  and  scored  in  precisely  the  same 
manner  as  the  dome-shaped  mass  to  which  I  have  just  al- 
luded. The  southern  side  retains,  like  the  other  mass, 
many  of  the  angularities  produced  by  the  original  fractures 
of  the  formation.  Similar  features  are  things  of  e  very-day 
observation,  but  people  never  suspect  what  mighty  and 
what  extraordinary  agencies  have  been  employed  in  pro- 
ducing them.  All  our  low  rocky  hills  and  bluffs  are  sim- 
ilarly pared  off  upon  their  summits  and  northern  exposures, 
while  their  southern  aspects  are  more  rugged.  The  great 
glacier  has  passed  over  them,  striking  them  from  the  north, 
and  grinding  down  their  northerly  projections  and  angu- 
larities. These  phenomena  have  been  especially  studied 
and  illustrated  in  New  England  by  the  lamented  Dr.  Hitch- 
cock. On  the  western  end  of  Lake  Erie,  at  Stony  Point, 
the  surface  of  the  Corniferous  limestone  lies  two  or  three 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  water.  Upon  this  have  been 
deposited  four  or  five  feet  of  gravel  and  soil.  On  the  im- 
mediate shore,  the  storm- waves  have  easily  washed  off  the 
overlying  beds,  and  left  acres  of  the  limestone  completely 
exposed  to  view.  What  do  we  find  to  be  the  character  of 
this  original  surface?  Level  and  smooth  as  a  floor — 
planed  down  by  the  energy  of  the  omnipresent  glacier — 
but  marked,  besides,  by  some  deep  furrows,  which  extend 
from  edge  to  edge  of  the  uncovered  table  in  lines  as 
straight  and  strictly  parallel  as  if  marked  by  the  "  gauge" 
of  some  Titanic  stone-worker.  One  set  of  the  furrows,  in 
particular,  arrests  the  attention,  since  the  visitor  can  not 
fail  to  recognize  their  resemblance  to  the  deep  ruts  pro- 
duced by  a  loaded  wagon  moving  over  a  soft  and  clayey 
surface  (Fig.  81). 

K 


218 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  81.  Sketch  of  Glacier  Furrows  and  Scratches  at  Stony  Pt,  Lake  Erie,  Mich, 
a,  a.  Deep  water  line,     b,  b,  Border  of  the  bank  of  earthy  materials,     c,  c.  Deep 
parallel  grooves  4>£  feet  apart  and  25  feet  long,  bearing  N.  60°  E.    d.  A  set  of 
grooves  and  scratches  bearing  N.  60°  W.    e.  A  natural  bridge. 

A  result  of  this  wide-spread  scouring  and  grinding  of 
the  rocks  was  the  accumulation  of  vast  quantities  of  de- 
tritus. From  this  source  comes  a  large  proportion  of  the 
pebbles,  sand,  and  clay  which  every  where  underlie  the 
surface-soil,  and  separate  it  from  the  bed-rock — an  essen- 
tial and  beneficent  provision,  as  every  one  knows  who  has 
observed  the  destructive  effects  of  ordinary  droughts  upon 
thin  soils  resting  on  a  rocky  basis.  Another  effect  of  the 
great  glacier  was  the  destruction  of  all  vegetation  over  the 
areas  which  it  invaded.  From  season  to  season,  and  from 
year  to  year,  the  mighty  mass  marched  irresistibly  forward, 


THE  RE  ION  OF  IOE.  219 

mowing  down  the  forests,  crushing  tree-trunks,  or  burying 
them,  with  the  rubbish  of  the  rocks,  from  ten  to  sixty  feet 
beneath  the  surface.  Such  buried  tree-trunks  have  thus 
lain  to  the  present  day,  and  we  frequently  encounter  them 
in  deep  excavations  for  wells,  though  my  friend  Professor 
Lesquereux  has  strangely  asserted  the  contrary.  With 
other  relics  of  the  vegetation  of  the  ancient  world  were 
necessarily  buried  the  seeds  and  fruits  of  the  species  then 
in  existence,  a  fact  of  which  I  shall  find  the  use  hereafter, 
in  speaking  of  prairies. 

The  great  glacier  moved  onward,  unheeding  equally 
rocky  knob,  and  swelling  hill,  and  river  gorge.  I  have 
stated  that  from  the  close  of  the  Carboniferous  Age  the 
Northern  States  were  dry  land.  Rains  fell,  as  now,  upon 
the  surface,  and  nourished  the  vegetation  which  had  found 
a  foothold.  The  surplus  waters  gathered  themselves,  as 
now,  into  streamlets  large  and  small,  and  these,  on  their 
way  to  the  sea,  wore  river-channels  in  the  surface  rocks. 
Across  these  rivers,  across  these  gorges,  the  great  glacier 
strode,  ignorant  of  the  obstacles  to  its  movement.  It 
bridged  Niagara  River,  it  bridged  Long  Island  Sound, 
and  bathed  itself  in  the  mild  waters  of  the  ocean  beyond. 
It  obliterated  river-channels,  and  dug  out  new  ones.  It 
plowed  anew  the  country  marked  off  by  the  feebler  agen- 
cies of  the  preceding  epoch.  It  made  a  tabula  rasa,  and 
outlined  after  a  different  pattern  the  topographical  and 
hydrographical  features  of  the  Northern  States.  Many  an 
ancient  river-channel  has  been  brought  to  light  by  railroad 
excavations,  and  more  especially  by  the  borings  for  petro- 
leum that  have  taken  place  within  the  last  few  years.  In 
many  instances  the  general  rocky  structure  of  a  region  has 
determined  the  location  of  the  streams  through  the  same 
valleys  as  before  the  work  of  the  glacier ;  but  even  here 
we  find  the  position  slightly  varied,  and  in  nearly  all  cases 


220  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

the  present  channel  is  a  narrow  and  shallow  one,  excava- 
ted through  the  surface  of  the  loose  materials  which  fill 
the  more  -extensive  ancient  channel.  In  Ohio  and  Indiana 
these  buried  river-beds  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  The 
ancient  gorge  of  the  Niagara  River  was  filled  by  the  ob- 
literating agency  of  this  continental  glacier.  For  ages 
and  ages  the  river  had  patiently  labored  upon  this  exca- 
vation, as  it  has  since  done  upon  the  existing  one ;  but  the 
glacier  came  with  its  cubic  miles  of  rubbish,  and  wiped  out 
the  trifling  furrow,  leaving  the  surface  comparatively  level, 
and  making  it  necessary  for  the  river  to  begin  anew  its 
work  when  the  invading  glacier  had  disappeared.  The 
excavation  of  lake  basins  is  sometimes  attributed  to  this 
agency,  but  these  may  have  been  partly  the  result  of  sub- 
sequent aqueous  action.  It  was  probably  the  force  which 
dug  the  shores  of  northern  seas  into  their  numerous  deep 
and  narrow  fiords,  as.  can  be  seen  upon  the  coast  of  Maine, 
and  the  European  and  Asiatic  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
It  bore  southward,  over  distances  of  twenty,  fifty,  and  even 
five  hundred  miles,  fragments  of  Northern  rocks,  some  of 
which  are  of  enormous  magnitude.  One  in  Bradford,  Mas- 
sachusetts, is  thirty  feet  each  way,  and  weighs  not  less  than 
four  and  a  half  millions  of  pounds.  A  boulder  of  jaspery 
conglomerate,  weighing  about  seven  tons,  was  transported 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  by  the  class  of  1862,  and  mounted 
upon  the  campus  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  an  imper- 
ishable monument  to  their  memory  and  their  enterprise. 
The  native  home  of  this  huge  mass  is  the  northern  shore 
of  Lake  Huron,  where  the  formation  is  found  in  place,  and 
where  I  have  seen  detached  and  rounded  masses  weighing 
probably  a  hundred  tons.  These  fragments  have  thus  been 
transported  over  lakes,  sounds,  and  seas.  Masses  of  native 
copper  from  Lake  Superior  are  strewn  over  Wisconsin  and 
Lower  Michigan,  and  have  wandered  even  into  Ohio  and 


THE  RE  ION  OF  ICE.  221 

Indiana ;  while  pebbles  of  quartz,  gneiss,  granite,  dolerite, 
and  other  rocks  from  the  same  regions  constitute  a  large 
proportion  of  the  soil  of  these  states.  The  streets  of  Cin- 
cinnati are  paved  with  stones  which  were  quarried  by  the 
hand  of  Nature  in  the  region  of  the  upper  lakes. 

Professor  Agassiz,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  full 
exposition  and  application  of  the  glacial  theory,  thinks  he 
discovers  abundant  evidences  of  the  former  action  of  gla- 
ciers in  Brazil ;  but  the  presence  of  rocky  debris^  and  even 
of  rounded  pebbles  that  can  not  be  attributed  to  shore  ac- 
tion, is  not  enough  to  establish  glacial  agency,  especially 
while  in  the  United  States  we  do  not  recognize  it  south  of 
the  Ohio  River.  On  the  contrary,  Professor  Whitney  has 
recently  asserted  that  the  proofs  of  glacial  action  are  en- 
tirely wanting  in  California,  and  for  some  distance  north- 
ward. The  copious  accumulations  of  unsolidified  surface 
materials  are  attributed  to  the  slow  disintegration  of  the 
rocks  under  atmospheric  agencies. 

Glaciers  of  almost  continental  extent  still  exist  on  the 
shores  of  Greenland,  and  cover  the  Antarctic  land  dis- 
covered by  the  United  States  Exploring  Expedition ;  also 
Wrangell  Land,  very  recently  discovered  by  Captain  Long 
in  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Perennial  ice  binds  the  soil  of*  North- 
ern Siberia,  and,  as  is  well  known,  preserved  for  many  cen- 
turies the  carcasses  of  hairy  elephants  incased  in  it.  There 
is  little  difficulty  in  believing  that  these  high-latitude  ice- 
fields are  merely  the  remnants  of  glaciers  which  once  ex- 
tended many  degrees  farther  toward  the  south. 


222  /SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

LABORS    OF   THE    ICE-BORN   TORRENTS,  AND   THE    OCEAN 
BURIAL. 

THE  manacles  of  ice  were  loosened  by  the  genius  of  a 
geological  spring-time.  Next  in  the  order  of  vicissi- 
tudes was  a  grand  continental  subsidence.  Vast  areas  of 
Northern  America,  that  had  been  raised  to  the  altitude  of 
perpetual  snow,  were  gradually  lowered  to  the  ocean's 
level.  Again  the  interchange  of  equatorial  and  polar  tem- 
peratures was  effected  by  the  moving  sea-currents,  and  the 
climate  of  summer  smiled  over  the  desolate  empire  of 
frost.  The  rocky  glacier  yielded  to  the  touch  of  warmth, 
and  a  myriad  streams  leaped  from  the  bosom  of  the  snow 
(Fig.  82).  Each  ice-cold  rill  united  with  its  fellow,  and  a 
deluge  of  waters  set  out  on  their  journey  to  the  sea.  They 
wound  their  way  across  the  future  states  of  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  and  Alabama,  to  the  Gulf.  They  bore  forward 
a  freight  of  sediments  selected  from  the  rubbish  bequeathed 
by  the  dying  glacier,  and  strewed  it  over  the  states  that 
had  not  been  visited  by  the  beneficent  action  of  the  ice. 
Thus  the  Gulf  States  and  the  middle-latitude  states  shared 
with  the  northern  regions  the  materials  prepared  to  serve 
as  the  basis  of  soils  in  the  coming  age  of  thought  and  in- 
dustry. These  myriad  streamlets  were,  however,  unable 
to  bear  forward  the  boulders  which  had  been  carried  by 
the  ice  to  the  borders  of  the  Southern  States.  And  hence 
it  is  that,  south  of  the  Ohio, "  cobble-stones"  are  sought  in 
vain.  The  soil  and  subsoil  possess  a  degree  of  fineness 
and  homogeneousness  not  characteristic  of  the  surface  de- 
posits of  the  Northern  States.     In  the  earlier  portion  of  the 


LABORS  OF  ICE-BORN  TORRENTS,  ETC.         223 


Fig.  82.  River  issuing  from  a  Swiss  Glacier. 

epoch  of  thaw  and  floods,  the  power  of  the  waters  was  suf- 
ficient to  move  pebbles  of  the  size  of  a  pigeon's  egg.  I 
have  observed  in  Middle  and  Southern  Alabama  multi- 
tudes of  quartzose  and  other  hard  pebbles  that  could  not 
have  been  derived  from  any  source  nearer  than  the  spurs 
of  the  Appalachian  ridges  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
state.  One  noteworthy  locality  is  along  the  gorge  of  the 
Black  Warrior  River,  at  Tuscaloosa,  where  Sir  Charles 
Lyell,  when  on  his  second  tour  through  the  United  States, 
mistook  them  for  the  "  shingle"  of  the  Cretaceous  system. 
This  system  produces  no  such  pebbles  in  Alabama.  An- 
other locality  worthy  of  mention  is  at  Jackson,  on  the 
Tombigbee  River,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  where 
they  constitute  a  bank  a  hundred  feet  in  depth.  In  short, 
these  pebbles  may  be  traced  all  the  way  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico ;  but  their  normal  position  is  always  in  the  deeper 
portions  of  the  superficial  accumulations.    When  the  pow- 


224  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

er  of  the  transporting  currents  grew  feebler,  they  bore  for- 
ward only  the  finer  sands  and  aluminous  sediments  which 
repose  generally  upon  the  surface  of  the  Southern  States. 

The  rushing  torrents  born  of  the  dissolving  glacier  bus- 
ied themselves  als%  with  the  work  of  excavation.  Many 
an  existing  valley  and  river  course  was  determined  by  the 
active  erosions  of  this  epoch.  Many  a  cut  through  the 
rocky  ribs  of  mountains  had  now  to  be  executed  to  make 
way  for  the  escape  of  imprisoned  waters.  Many  a  broad 
and  rock-floored  valley  became  filled,  and  converted  into  an 
alluvial  plain,  by  the  rubbish  which  the  torrent  deposited 
in  its  quieter  mood.  Many  a  basin  was  now  scooped  out 
which,  in  the  next  epoch,  became  a  laEe  of  standing  water. 
The  basins  of  all  the  larger  lakes  that  have  been  excavated 
by  erosive  action  conform  in  their  longitudinal  extent  to 
the  strike  of  the  underlying  formations.  A  line  running 
through  the  centres  of  the  great  lakes  from  Chicago  to  Os- 
wego, runs  approximately  along  the  winding  strike  of  the 
formations  of  a  certain  age.  This  line  shows  the  configu- 
ration of  the  shore  of  the  continent  when  those  formations 
were  accumulating.  It  is  worthy  of  particular  note  that  the 
shore-line  was  always  substantially  parallel  to  the  axis  of 
these  fresh  waters  during  all  paleozoic  time.  In  the  Lower 
Silurian  it  lay  to  the  north  of  these  waters.  During  the 
Devonian  it  was  to  the  south  of  the  waters.  During  the 
Upper  Silurian  it  was  to  the  south  in  the  eastern  region, 
and  to  the  north  (or  northwest)  in  the  western  region.  We 
may  here  seize  upon  a  key  to  carry  with  us,  and  unlock  at 
any  time  the  geological  map  of  the  country  before  the 
mind's  eye  (compare  Fig.  58).  Every  one  locates  instantly 
and  definitely  the  Niagara  Falls  and  Niagara  River.  The 
Niagara  limestone  was  named  from  the  falls,  and  its  out- 
cropping belt  trends  east  and  west  at  that  point.  This  is 
the  great  limestone  mass  of  the  Upper  Silurian.     As  in' 


LABORS  OF  ICE- BORN  TORRENTS,  ETC.         225 

New  York,  the  growth  of  the  continent  was  toward  the 
south,  the  rocks  of  the  Lower  Silurian  must  lie  to  the  north 
of  Niagara  Falls,  and  the  rocks  of  the  Devonian  to  the 
south.  From  either  of  these  regions 'trace  a  line  parallel 
with  the  axis  of  the  lake  waters — omitting  Lake  Superior 
— and  we  have  the  geographical  boundary  of  a  system  of 
rocks,  or  one  of  the  shore-lines  of  the  ancient  continent. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  great  lakes  were  excavated 
along  the  outcrops  of  the  formations  instead  of  across  them. 
It  is  not  an  unaccountable  fact,  for  the  lines  of  least  resist- 
ance must  have  run  along  the  trends  of  the  most  friable 
strata.  Lake  Michigan  is  scooped  out  from  Devonian  for- 
mations ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  Lake  Erie.  Lake  Ontario 
is  excavated  in  Lower  Silurian  strata ;  and  the  same  is  true 
of  Georgian  Bay,  Green  Bay,  and  the  Wisconsin  lakes  far- 
ther south — Winnebago,  Horicon,  and  Albion.  The  basin 
of  Lake  Huron  is  underlaid  by  Devonian  and  Upper  Silu- 
rian rocks.  It  seems  to  be  two  basins  coalesced ;  and  but 
for  the  peninsula  of  Niagara  limestone  separating  it  from 
Georgian  Bay,  it  would  be  three  basins  blended  in  one. 
Lake  Champlain  also  conforms  to  the  trend  of  Lower  Silu- 
rian strata,  but  the  small  meridional  lakes  of  Central  and 
Western  New  York  are  plowed  across  the  formations. 
They  are  a  kind  of  inland  fiords,  worked  out  perhaps  rather 
by  the  action  of  the  glacier  than  by  that  of  the  floods 
which  followed. 

The  influence  of  these  vast  inland  accumulations  of  fresh 
water  upon  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  man  is  strikingly 
beneficent  and  providential.  They  serve  as  equalizers  of 
summer  and  winter  temperatures.  In  winter  they  may 
be  regarded  as  vast  reservoirs  of  warmth — great  natural 
stoves  or  heaters,  which  continue  to  impart  their  warmth 
to  the  frigid  winds  that  move  over  them,  and  thus  transfer 
their  influence  to  the  contiguous  lands.    This  is  a  provision 

K2 


226  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

which,  till  very  recently,  has  been  overlooked.  It  has  been 
well  understood  that  the  Atlantic  ameliorates  the  climate 
of  Western  Europe,  and  the  Pacific  that  of  Western  Amer- 
ica. I  have  had  occasion  to  ascertain  that  a  similar  influ- 
ence is  exerted  by  the  great  lakes,  and  to  an  extent  which 
is  far  more  than  proportional  to  their  volume,  as  compared 
with  one  of  the  oceans.  I  have  investigated  the  climate 
and  productions  of  the  belt  along  the  eastern  side  of  Lake 
Michigan,  from  St.  Joseph  to  Mackinac,  and  especially  in 
the  "  Grand  Traverse  Region,"  where  the  bays  penetrate 
far  inland,  and  thus  augment  the  climatic  influence  of  the 
water.  In  the  Grand  Traverse  region  the  thermometer 
never  sinks  more  than  fourteen  degrees  below  zero,  and 
hence  none  of  the  more  delicate  fruit-trees  ever  suffer  in- 
jury from  the  severity  of  the  winter.  Autumnal  frosts  are 
delayed  till  late  in  October,  and  hence  the  season  is  suffi- 
ciently long  for  the  ripening  of  peaches  and  grapes.  Snow 
falls  in  November  or  December,  before  severe  freezing 
weather  arrives,  and  hence  the  ground  is  never  frozen,  and 
tender  roots  stand  out  through  the  winter.  In  extreme 
winter  weather  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake  is  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  degrees  warmer  than  the  immediate  western 
shore.  But  the  western  shore,  as  that  industrious  physi- 
cist and  archaeologist,  Dr.  I.  A.  Lapham,  has  shown,  is  sen- 
sibly milder  than  the  interior  of  Wisconsin,  so  that  the 
ameliorating  influence  of  the  lake  upon  the  climate  of 
Michigan  becomes  strikingly  manifest.  No  Northern 
state  can  compete  with  Michigan  in  the  production  of 
fruits.  This  fact,  to  a  great  extent,  is  owing  to  its  envi- 
ronment by  the  great  lakes.  The  western  slope  of  the 
state  is  most  favorably  circumstanced  in  this  respect. 

Lake  Michigan  is  a  body  of  water  three  hundred  miles 
long,  sixty  miles  wide,  and  eight  hundred  feet  deep.  The 
bottom  is  warmed  by  the  internal  fires  of  the  earth.     The 


LABORS  OF  ICE-BORN  TORRENTS,  ET(j.        227 

water  stands  at  least  fifteen  degrees  above  the  mean  tem- 
perature of  the  year  in  the  same  latitude.  But,  even  with- 
out this  warming  influence,  the  mean  of  the  climate  is  con- 
siderably above  the  freezing  point,  and  the  cold  of  winter 
does  not  suffice  to  depress  so  large  a  body  of  water  to 
thirty-two  degrees.  The  lake,  therefore,  never  sinks  below 
thirty-eight  or  forty  degrees.  *  The  bitter  westerly  winds, 
consequently,  in  sweeping  across  the  lake,  experience  a 
material  softening  before  they  strike  the  Michigan  side. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  throughout  the  Northwest,  the 
severest  winter  winds  come  from  the  west  and  southwest. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  eastern  shores  of  the  great 
lakes  are  more  benefited  than  the  western.  As  the  bitter- 
est winds  of  all  are  from  the  southwest,  it  follows  that  a 
situation  which,  like  the  Grand  Traverse  region,  can  re- 
ceive the  winds  that  have  traveled  the  longest  distance 
over  the  lake,  will  be  best  protected  from  the  frosts  of 
winter. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Canadian  region,  along  the  east- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Huron,  enjoys  a  winter  climate  similarly 
exempt  from  destructive  extremes.  The  influence  of  these 
lakes  is  sensibly  felt  even  along  their  southern  shores.  The 
region  south  of  Lake  Ontario  has  long  been  celebrated  for 
its  fruits,  while  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  has  been 
proven  one  of  the  best  grape -producing  districts  of  the 
world. 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  beneficent  results  of  an  inci- 
dent  of  the  epoch  of  the  dissolution  of  the  glacier.  The 
ice  was  rapidly  melted;  torrents  sprang  into  existence, 
and  scooped  out  lake  basins;  these  became  filled  with 
waters  which,  besides  subserving  the  interests  of  naviga- 
tion, exert,  perhaps,  a  more  beneficial  influence  in  ameliora- 
ting the  condition  of  man  in  the  centre  of  the  continent. 

A  different  ordeal  still  awaited  the  destined  dwelling- 


228  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

place  of  American  freedom.  The  subsidence  which  had 
restored  the  genial  climate  of  the  Tertiary  Age  extended 
from  the  Arctic  to  the  Temperate  regions.  By  degrees, 
Wisconsin,  Michigan,  New  York,  Ohio,  and  other  Northern 
States  disappeared  beneath  the  waves.  Here  the  denizens 
of  the  land  had  held  undisputed  sway  during  the  long  ages 
since  the  coal-bogs  were  made  vocal  with  the  croaking  of 
gigantic  Batrachians.  Now  all  that  had  been  gained  was 
lost.  The  trident  of  Neptune  waved  again  where  stately 
trees  had  reared  their  palmy  heads,  and  the  mastodon  had 
hurried  through  the  forest  with  his  thunder-waking  tread. 
Such  are  the  fortunes  of  contests  in  the  natural  as  in  the 
social  world. 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  CONTINENT.  229 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

RESURRECTION    OF   THE    CONTINENT. 

TT  seemed  like  a  failure  of  the  plan  of  creation.  The 
-*-  land  gained  by  unnumbered  throes  of  the  continent  was 
lost.  The  higher  summits  only  held  their  heads  above  the 
level  of  the  careering  waves.  Deposits  bearing  the  marks 
of  oceanic  action  reach  to  an  elevation  of  six  thousand  feet 
on  Mount  Washington,  two  thousand  or  more  on  the  Green 
Mountains,  and  three  thousand  on  Monadnock.  But  this 
deep  submergence  was  not  of  long  continuance.  Slowly 
the  continent  rose  again  from  its  deep  sea-burial.  As  sum- 
mit after  summit  lifted  its  gravel-covered  brow  above  the 
sea,  the  retiring  waves,  lingering,  dallied  with  the  pebbles 
on  the.widening  beach.  As  the  continent  rose,  every  inch 
became,  in  succession,  the  ocean  shore,  and  was  subjected 
to  the  assorting  action  of  the  waters.  As  a  consequence, 
the  finer  materials  were  left  upon  the  surface,  and  a  most 
suitable  substratum  for  the  soil  was  thus  provided.  Dur- 
ing the  preceding  epoch,  Nature  robbed  the  Northern 
States  of  their  finer  material  for  the  benefit  of  the  South- 
ern. Now  she  made  amends  by  raking  up  the  deep  de- 
posits, and  selecting  and  strewing  over  the  surface  a  new 
supply  of  finer  detritus  for  the  benefit  of  the  Northern 
States. 

Before  the  resurrection  was  completed,  Nature  made 
several  pauses  in  her  work,  and  the  sea  was  permitted  to 
stand,  perhaps  for  ages,  over  districts  that  had  been  marked 
out  as  the  dwelling-place  for  man.  The  first  pause  occurred 
when  the  waters  still  stood  four  hundred  feet  above  their 


230  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

present  level  at  Montreal.  At  lower  levels,  down  to  twen- 
ty-five or  thirty  feet,  the  traces  of  standing  waters  have 
been  observed  about  New  England  and  Long  Island.  At 
one  time  the  Atlantic  flowed  up  the  valley  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  Montreal,  and  whales  sported  in  an  arm  of  the  sea 
which  reached  over  the  valley  of  Lake  Champlain.  The 
ancient  beaches  have  been  traced  all  around  those  earlier 
borders  of  the  land. 

The  last  portion  of  this  upward  movement  has  been  in 
times  comparatively  recent.  We  are  neither  to  suppose 
that  the  work  was  suddenly  and  violently  performed,  nor 
that  it  is  even  yet  complete.  The  secular  elevations  now 
known  to  be  progressing  at  various  points  along  our  coast 
are  but  a  continuation  of  the  action  which  rescued  our  con- 
tinent from  the  jaws  of  the  ocean,  and  which  may  be  far- 
ther continued  for  many  centuries.  Who  knows  how  much 
land  may  yet  be  added  to  the  northeastern  border  of 
America  ?  Who  can  say  that  Newfoundland  may  not  yet 
become  a  peninsula  joined  to  the  main  land,  or  that  the 
ancient  submerged  prolongation  of  our  continent  may  not 
be  again  resurrected  ?  New  England  may  cease  to  be  "  lit- 
tle New  England,"  and  may  boast  of  as  many  acres  as  the 
"  Great  West" — or  at  least  that  portion  of  it  covered  by 
the  organized  states.  However,  New  Englanders  ought 
not  to  indulge  too  sanguine  expectations  in  this  respect. 

Around  the  Gulf-border  of  our  country  the  indications 
of  future  extension  are  of  a  more  reliable  character.  In 
one  region  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  is  continuing  to 
push  itself  seaward.  Materials  are  being  transferred  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Louisiana.  The  Mississippi  is  an- 
nually building  out  into  the  Gulf.  From  the  same  source 
arises  another  and  an  unexpected  development  of  land 
upon  another  portion  of  the  Gulf-border.  Vast  quantities 
of  the  finer  sediments  of  the  Mississippi  are  floated  out  into 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE   CONTINENT.  231 

the  range  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  borne  onward  around 
the  peninsula  of  Florida  into  the  Atlantic.  As  is  well 
known,  the  Gulf  Stream  in  this  region  pursues  a  course 
from  west  to  east,  and,  in  passing  the  Florida  Keys,  it 
bends  northward.  At  this  flexure  of  the  stream,  the  outer 
portion  of  the  current  must  necessarily  be  more  rapid  than 
the  inner,  or  that  nearest  the  main  land.  The  retardation 
of  the  inner  belt  gives  more  time  for  the  deposition  of  its 
sediments,  and  we  accordingly  find  a  submarine  bank  of 
mud  gradually  raised.  When  the  summit  of  this  bank 
reaches  to  within  about  two  hundred  feet  of  the  surface, 
the  coral-builder  plants  his  foundations  upon  it,  and  pa- 
tiently rears  his  massive  reef  to  the  ocean's  surface, 

"Unconscious,  not  unworthy  instrument 
By  which  a  hand  invisible  is  rearing 
A  new  creation  in  the  secret  deep." 

In  the  mean  time  the  ocean  stream  is  crowded  farther 
toward  the  south,  where  the  waters  are  deeper.  Simul- 
taneously the  mud  deposits  extend  southward,  and  upon 
these  stretches  southward  also  the  "  masonry  imperishable" 
of  the  little  coral  architect.  As  with  all  coral  reefs,  those 
of  Florida  are  gradually  being  covered  with  the  materials 
of  a  soil,  and  clothed  with  a  tropical  vegetation.  Thus  the 
land  at  this  point  is  continually  extending  itself.  When 
we  inquire  for  what  length  of  time  and  over  what  distance 
this  growth  of  the  land  has  taken  place,  we  find  that  half 
the  peninsula  of  Florida  is  underlaid  by  a  reef  which  is  ab- 
solutely continuous  with  that  now  forming,  and  that  the 
species  of  polyps  which  worked  upon  that  foundation  of  a 
state  were  identical  with  those  now  laboring  to  extend  the 
area  of  American  freedom.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  the 
same  processes  which  have  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
that  peninsula  are  still  extending  it  southward.  The  time 
can  not  be  infinitely  remote  when  the  "  ever  blessed  isle" 


232  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

will  be  peacefully  annexed  to  the  dominions  of  the  Ameri- 
can eagle. 

These  are  events  and  phenomena  whose  history  reaches 
down  to  the  present,  and  whose  promises  extend  into  the 
future.  Let  us  turn  back  our  thoughts  for  a  moment,  and 
reinspect  the  phenomena  and  results  wrought  out  by  the 
ocean  on  occasion  of  his  last  supremacy  over  the  land.  It 
seemed,  indeed,  as  if  the  work  of  Nature  had  proved  a  fail- 
ure; but  this  very  inundation  had  been  embraced  in  the 
plans  of  infinite  Beneficence.  I  have  already  alluded  to 
the  assorting  action  exerted  upon  the  loose  materials  left 
upon  the  surface  by  the  retiring  glacier.  Large  portions 
of  the  drift  were  completely  worked  over,  and  redeposited 
under  a  semi-stratified  arrangement.  Who  has  not  stood 
in  a  railroad-cut  through  a  bank  of  these  materials,  and 
witnessed  the  bands  of  variously-colored  sands  and  clays 
exposed  in  the  walls  of  the  cut  ?  From  such  an  exposure 
of  the  internal  structure  of  these  hills  and  ridges  one  may 
learn  that  they  consist  of  beds  of  clay  of  various  extent, 
and  variously  inclined  in  reference  to  each  other,  between 
which  the  spaces  are  filled  up  with  sand  and  pebbles.  Now 
this  circumstance,  accidental  as  it  seems  to  be,  has  contrib- 
uted immensely  to  human  convenience.  The  rains  which 
fall  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth  percolate  through  the 
superficial  layers  of  sand  and  gravel,  but  always,  sooner  or 
later,  reach  one  of  these  strata  of  clay,  by  which  the  farther 
downward  progress  of  the  water  is  arrested.  Upon  the  top 
of  such  a  bed  of  clay  the  water  accumulates.  It  saturates 
the  overlying  sands.  It  is  true  that  it  will  slowly  follow 
the  descent  of  the  clay  bed,  and  will  reach  its  margin,  and 
begin  another  descent.  It  will  soon  be  arrested  again  in 
a  similar  manner,  and  will  form  a  deeper-seated  reservoir, 
which  in  turn  will  overflow  and  contribute  to  a  third. 
Thus  every  clayey  stratum,  whether  of  great  or  small  ex- 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  CONTINENT. 


233 


tent,  is  a  natural  cistern,  where  Providence  saves  the  rains 
within  reach  of  the  surface — a  cistern  of  filtered  water,  pre- 
served in  a  cool  and  protected  situation.  Man  penetrates 
the  drift  a  few  feet  at  any  place,  and  opens  one  of  these 
natural  cisterns  and  supplies  his  wants  (Fig.  83). 

But  the  dumb  beasts  have  never  learned  to  dig  wells. 
Observe  that  Providence  has  not  neglected  them.  The 
geological  forces  that  have  dug  river  gorges,  and  scooped 
out  valleys  large  and  small,  have  cut  across  these  beds  of 
clay,  and  tapped  a  myriad  cisterns  where  their  contents 


Fig.  83.  Phenomena  of  Wells  and  Springs  in  Drift  Materials, 
a,  a,  a,  etc.  Beds  of  clay  variously  disposed  in  a  mass  of  sandy  materials,  b,  b,  b. 
Wells  sunk  in  different  situations,  and  finding  a  supply  of  water  only  when  a 
bed  of  clay  is  reached.  A  well  on  the  top  of  a  hill  may  be  shallower  than  one 
at  the  foot,  c,  c.  The  surface  of  the  earth,  d.  Outcrop  of  bed  of  clay,  causing  a 
spring.  If  the  porous  materials  contain  fragments  of  limestones,  these  spring 
waters  are  hard,  and  deposit  travertine  from  "d  toward  b.  A  well  carried  below 
its  supplying-bed  may  lose  its  water  again. 

escape  upon  a  hill-side  (Fig.  83),  and  form  a  spring  at 
which  the  untutored  brute  may  slake  his  thirst  without 
the  benefits  of  shovel  and  pick.  But  as  all  animals  could 
not  conveniently  resort  to  springs,  and  as  there  are  certain 
regions  that  have  not  been  scored  by  denuding  forces,  we 
find  the  hill-side  spring  wandering  off  in  a  modest  rill.  At 
length  it  joins  hands  with  a  neighboring  rill,  and,  with  aug- 


234 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


mented  force,  they  urge  their  way  downward.  Soon  they 
are  joined  by  other  streamlets,  and  thus  the  united  waters 
form  a  rivulet,  which  goes  wandering  about  the  country, 
seeking  the  thirsty  and  weary  brute,  and  dispensing  its 
blessings  to  all  that  choose  to  partake.  On  this  traffic  no 
excise-tax  has  been  imposed.  The  rivers  are  still  free  to 
perambulate  the  country,  and  furnish  entertainment  and 
comfort  for  man  and  beast. 

Suppose,  for  a  moment,  the  surface  of  the  drift  had  been 
left  an  unbroken  plain.  The  native  cisterns  might  still 
have  been  inclosed,  but  no  leakages  could  occur ;  neither 
spring  nor  rivulet  could  originate  under  such  circum- 
stances. A  stream  originating  in  another  region  might 
flow  through  this,  but  even  such  a  stream  would  diminish 
instead  of  augmenting  its  volume.  The  greedy  sands 
would  consume  it.  Like  the  rivers  of  Nevada,  its  begin- 
ning would  be  more  imposing  than  its  end. 

But  suppose,  farther,  that  in  a  country  of  such  unbroken 
surface,  the  argillaceous  particles  had  not  been  separated 
in  beds  of  clay.  Suppose  the  entire  mass  of  drift  materials 
a  promiscuous  mixture  of  coarser  and  finer  constituents. 
What  would  become  of  the  water  precipitated  from  the 
clouds  ?  It  must  descend  to  the  rocky  foundations  of  the 
land.  Man,  who  would  seek  a  well,  must  dig  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  formation.  This  might  be  one,  two,  or  five 
hundred  feet.  Such  a  condition  of  things  would  be  rather 
inconvenient.  And  yet  the  existing  condition  results  from 
an  incident  in  geological  history  which,  at  first  view,  seems 
only  destructive  and  retrogressive. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Vegetation  has  greater  need  than  man 
that  a  large  body  of  water  should  be  held  within  a  limited 
distance  of  the  surface.  Were  rains  always  frequent,  this 
necessity  might  not  exist;  but  large  portions  of  the  earth's 
surface  are  subject  to  droughts  of  greater  or  less  severity. 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  CONTINENT.  235 

Now  in  time  of  drought,  when  the  immediate  surface  has 
become  parched,  moisture  rises  by  capillary  attraction  from 
the  nearest  subterranean  reservoir.  Evidently  the  nearer 
this  reservoir  to  the  surface,  the  more  easily  and  rapidly 
its  alleviating  effects  will  reach  the  suffering  roots  of  veg- 
etation. So  far  as  I  can  perceive,  the  soils  of  regions  cir- 
cumstanced as  I  have  supposed  must  be  doomed  to  irreme- 
diable sterility. 

The  epoch  of  the  last  emergence  of  the  land  was  the  time 
when  the  precise  drainage  features  of  modern  times  were 
determined.  The  great  undulations  of  the  surface  which 
determine  the  principal  water-sheds  depend,  it  is  true,  upon 
the  conformation  of  the  rocky  crust,  and  probably  existed 
nearly  as  they  now  exist  in  the  age  anterior  to  the  reign 
of  ice.  But  all  the  subordinate  details  of  the  drainage 
were  executed  while  the  continent  was  rising  from  its  last 
ablution.  There  was  a  time  when  the  descent  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi was  so  gradual  that  the  waters  spread  out  many 
miles,  and,  like  a  vast  bayou,  filled  the  valley  between  the 
bluffs  which  bound  to-day  its  alluvial  bottom.  This  is  the 
condition  of  the  Amazon  in  the  existing  epoch.  As  the  in- 
terior of  the  continent  became  more  elevated,  the  currents 
of  the  rivers  became  swifter  and  narrower.  Many  river- 
channels,  obliterated  by  the  agency  of  the  glacier,  and,  far- 
ther, by  the  blending  and  leveling  of  the  submerging  waves, 
could  not  again  be  found  when  the  continent  was  restored. 
The  new -formed  streams  were  obliged  to  seek  out  new 
paths,  and  dig  new  outlets  to  the  sea.  The  ancient  gorge 
of  the  Niagara  had  been  obliterated,  and,  when  the  labors 
of  that  stream  were  resumed,  a  slight  change  in  the  config- 
uration of  the  surface  turned  the  current  from  "  the  whirl- 
pool" farther  to  the  east  than  before.  On  reaching,  near 
Lewiston,  the  brow  of  the  escarpment  which  then  formed 
the  head  of  the  great  Laurentian  estuary,  it  missed  its  an- 


23G  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

cient  channel,  and,  plunging  headlong  down  the  precipice, 
began  again  the  practice  of  that  stupendous  system  of  en- 
gineering which  it  had  already  so  well  learned  to  wield. 

As  the  continent  slowly  rose  from  the  sea,  innumerable 
depressions  in  the  newly-exposed  surface  were  left  filled 
with  the  brine.  Thus  the  basins  of  the  great  lakes  of 
North  America  were  first  filled.  But  an  outlet  existed 
from  these  lakes  to  the  ocean.  When  the  accession  of 
water  from  the  clouds  produced  an  overflow,  the  drainage 
was  always  saliferous.  Thus  these  lakes  have  always  been 
giving  out  brine  and  receiving  only  pure  water.  As  a  con- 
sequence, their  original  brine  has  been  continually  diluted, 
until,  in  our  age,  its  salinity  is  no  longer  perceptible  to  the 
taste.  Nevertheless,  chemistry  has  a  tongue  that  still  de- 
tects the  salty  savor. 

Not  a  few  of  the  ancient  depressions  found  no  outlet. 
The  ocean's  brine,  imprisoned  within  impassable  barriers, 
has  there  remained,  and  "salt  lakes"  are  the  result.  In 
many  instances  the  brine  of  these  lakes  has  even  been  con- 
centrated in  the  progress  of  time.  The  evaporation  of  pure 
water  from  their  surfaces  has  exceeded  the  precipitation 
from  the  clouds  within  the  limits  of  their  hydrographicai 
basins.  This  is  probably  the  case  with  most  existing  salt 
lakes,  of  which  the  Caspian  Sea  is  our  largest  example. 
Some  of  these  salt  lakes,  in  the  progress  of  evaporation, 
have  greatly  shrunken  in  geographical  extent.  Their  aban- 
doned territory  is  often  saturated  with  saline  constituents 
rejected  by  the  overburdened  water.  Some  of  the  salt  and 
alkali  plains  of  our  Western  Territories  have  had  an  origin 
of  this  kind.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted,  however,  that 
the  great  salt-plantations  of  Nevada  result  from  dried-up 
streams  which  take  their  origin  in  salt-bearing  formations 
built  into  the  frame-work  of  the  sierras. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  a  point  where  we  can  read  the 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  CONTINENT.  237 

history  of  our  beds  of  peat  and  marl.  These  neglected 
swamps  demand  a  better  appreciation.  Improved  machin- 
ery is  already  offering  us  peat  for  heat-production.  There 
was  a  time  when  the  richest  coal-bed  was  but  a  bottomless 
peat-bog.  The  coal-measures  of  the  country  are  nothing 
but  fossilized  "  swamp-lands."  Nature  has  shown  an  inter- 
est in  peat.  Let  us  see  how  she  prepares  it  in  modern 
times. 

I  have  already  called  to  mind  the  grand  events  which 
accompanied  the  last  great  revolution  of  the  globe.  We 
have  seen,  in  imagination,  the  world  emerging  in  a  resur- 
rection from  its  grave  of  waters.  The  waves  have  glided 
down  the  shoulders  and  sides  of  the  continent  until  she  sat 
with  her  feet  only  bathing  in  the  sea.  But  the  surface  of 
the  land  was  covered  with  inequalities,  and  thousands  of 
little  depressions  held  their  lakelets  of  water  prisoners  in 
their  arms.  So  the  land  was  at  first  dotted  with  thousands 
of  little  inland  seas.  How  some  of  them,  with  no  outlet, 
held  fast  to  the  saltness  which  was  the  last  bequest  of 
their  mother  ocean,  I  have  already  explained.  How  oth- 
ers, like  spendthrifts,  permitted  a  perpetual  outgo,  with  no 
income  to  correspond,  I  have  also  reminded  the  reader. 
At  what  particular  stage  of  dilution  Nature  ceased  to 
regard  them  as  fitting  abodes  of  the  marine  animals  which 
must  have  been  entrapped  within  their  borders  I  am  un- 
able to  say.  By  what  means  they  became  tenanted  by 
the  beings  which  make  their  home  in  fresh  waters  I  am  un- 
able to  say  from  the  observed  operation  of  natural  laws.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  Nature  promptly  produced,  ab  origine, 
such  creatures  as  would  be  suited  to  the  new  circum- 
stances. 

But  the  history  of  multitudes  of  the  smaller  and  shal- 
lower lakes  has  been  completely  closed.  For  ages  they  re- 
ceived and  swallowed  up  the  leachings  of  the  surrounding 


/  /  /  j 

7/ AW    07''    r//A,1   110  V 

uiii, 

1  In  if     '"  im  1  1 

,!!v    ':il':.M'/u,    v.  ;i  t  <  »  >    ,,r  <  <  i  j,il  al  <  d, 

1 

add<d    lln 

d<  id    =dn  Uf 

of  mjrrlw'i    of  Little  moltafci  tb*t 

Ihmn.lnd 

upon  H<<    lin 

..     1  -     .1    1.-                        !<  ,;•          J  >i«     Ullmn 

i,i   <  :u  h  )al- 

<   !«   I.    \,i  run,,- 

:i    h<  '1   of    :        -            I'.ut    :.ll   around    fin- 

bMdl  lb* 

And    linn 

:  put    tin n.   1 

1    Ihllmyh 

tin     :<.:.:•:•<  ;•   and    ;<'I;m  ;•    w«  M     vyilir/ 

nun;*  j/.i«,  n.<  w;ii« •»-.    Tin-  ftmpbifc 
wtb  to  0h*mo  hy  mixing  tl 

lln       .-linn      ,,\     l|i<      Iak<  l<l.'*     Ul.l.OllJ. 
1  In      j  ii;-1,<  >     hi,    \>,    1 1,<  n     |.  in  <  ;-.    J 1 1 

i  And  fffiMOi  toftrcoltr  over  shot* 

in   :;  l.n  li  i<  II  liji'in  l)i«     w  al<  /    «n    found 

l|j«-    l-ll-M-      h< 

<  aim    <  i»t.ui:'l<  -1   in    1  li<     Ik  i  l»:i:'<     and 

v.  lii  u  shrill 

\.,v<  mln  i    <  ann-, 

I,., v..  d  ll. <  «/    In  adr-  in  In:-   |n<  :■•  n<  ■«     and  w»aj,j,<d  lln  nn-<  Iv<>. 
in  ili«    t  .  ..  m«  „i-  ihal    had  .t/alln  n  -I  uhonl    tin  in       'I  I 
Mill    I,-  'I    '.I     .-  :/«  lald<     unnild    lnn:/«  d    I  In     ltilt<  I-  I     and    i 
laj,|,<  <|    III.  -,|    Ml  iH  "<  :,ll,    I  li? 

I   i. ,m    ',.  ...    I-.    ><  ai.  :»:•    I  In     v    il<  i      l.alln  '  i  -I    ahoiil, 
i  in  ,-,:,.  hin.L'    '.<  ;"  lain. i.    .  i.,\\d«  d    lailln  i 

i.uii,.  r  in  . .  .,i..  .,i  iii.  lai .  1. 1      i  Imvi  not 

II, <     l„  •',.,.,!.,;'    .,|M  Inil    :.l     Hi.. I    |.<  n-.d   .,|    In,,,     n, 

li  I  ha<  <    Ik  <  ..  |.«  nnill.  I 

find  i  I  d<  i.  <  i.  'I  '...!.. i.   in 

timlii  i  lj   i  Hiding  bj  'i"  brinl 

and    I..IIM     a   d.  ,  :  I)    \lkv  l.lml    ••  I,.-  H 

..,,,,.  -I   ii,   ll,.     •,.  ai    hi  I-..-  lininaii 

t  ),  >       .1.  |,  .  I,  ,|   ||,«    ,  I,;,  i  a.  I.  i    ..I   ll..  >•  ■    \  n  i:-:-ilnd.  I  |    and   in  y 

,,,  i .  ,,,,  |  from  I  h .'  •■ hii  h  1  wi  to 

And      ...I.       ..I     I  l,<     •  I, 

lunni  ill.-  In>n    ui.i  1 1  1 1..    i  ..  i     ..i  1 1,.    |,  i     in         ..  hi 


MMSUMJtMQTlON  OF  THE  CONTINENT.        239 

£N  made  to  illuminate  the  dark  ami  mysterious  ehambers 
of  the  fossil  ivalm. 

Reasoning  thus,  we  are  farced  to  the  conviction  that 

many  of  the  ancient  lakelets  haw  become  completely  tilled. 
Others  are  only  half  tilled.  Others  have  had  the  work  com- 
pleted even  "within  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant." 
Who  is  not  acquainted  with  some  grassy  pond  which  his 
father  had  known  as  a  clear  lakelet  J  What  man  is  unable 
to  point  out  some  swale  that  in  boyhood  he  had  known  as 
a  grassy  pond?  or  some  meadow  that  he  has  traversed  as 
an  old-time  swale?  The  work  is  not  ended  when  the  lake- 
let is  tilled.  The  surrounding  eminences  still  continue  to 
afford  lime-yielding  water,  which  saturates  the  muck  and 

deposits  its  lime;  while  vegetation  still  pays  its  annual 
tribute  to  the  accumulating  stores,  till  the  solid  material 
becomes  sutlicient  to  exclude  the  excess  of  water.  The  an- 
cient lakelet  is  at  length  a  finished  meadow.  Man  now 
steps  in  and  appropriates  the  annual  crop  as  coolly  and 
unthinkingly,  and  perhaps  as  thanklessly,  as  if  kind  Nature 
hail  not  expended  a  thousand  years  and  infinite  pains  in 
fitting  it  up  for  his  uses. 

The  epoeh  of  the  resurgence  of  the  eontinent  has  been 
styled  the  Champlain  Kpoeh  of  the  Post-Tertiary  Age. 
During  this  epoeh  existed  the  mastodon  and  mammoth, 
whose  ponderous  bones  ami  teeth  have  overstrewn  the 
entire  area  oi'  our  country.  I'ltlike  the  teeth  sown  by 
Cadmus,  those  of  these  giant  quadrupeds  produced  no 
crop,  and  we  are  not  early  enough  in  our  visit  to  this 
planet  to  DO  gratified  by  the  exhibition  of  living  masto- 
dons and  hairy  elephants. 
.  It  was  probably  also  in  the  earliest  part  of  the  Cham- 
plain  Kpoeh,  or  even  before  the  full  termination  of  the 
Olacial  Kpoeh,  that  man  appeared  upon  the  earth.  «Iudg^ 
9ofcly  from  geological  data,  his  appearance  in  America 


240 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


was  considerably  later  than  in  the  Old  World ;  but  even 
in  America  the  race  has  probably  looked  upon  the  later 
representatives  of  the  mammoth  and  mastodon  tribes.  I 
have  myself  exhumed  mastodon  bones  from  a  bed  of  peat 
not  more  than  three  feet  deep,  and  which  I  believe  could 
easily  have  been  accumulated  during  the  last  five  hundred 
years.  The  traditions  of  the  American  Indians  in  refer- 
ence to  the  acquaintance  of  their  ancestors  with  animals 
which  left  these  gigantic  remains  are  probably  founded 
upon  fact. 

But  this  is  a  subject  to  which  I  shall  return.  I  am 
tempted  still  to  offer  a  few  farther  reflections  upon  the 
physical  events  marking  the  dawn  of  the  Human  Epoch. 


FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  241 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OP  THE  GREAT  LAKES. 

IN  the  spring  of  1865,  at  the  time  of  the  memorable  floods, 
I  had  occasion  to  pass  over  the  Great  Western  Railway 
from  Suspension  Bridge  to  Detroit.  From  Chatham  to  the 
vicinity  of  Detroit  this  road  runs  within  sight  of  Lake  St. 
Clair.  On  this  occasion  the  country  was  submerged  al- 
most as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  in  every  direction.  Our 
engineer  seemed  to  be  practicing  a  new  species  of  naviga- 
tion— rather  grallatorial  than  natatorial.  The  little  lake 
had  become  rampant.  Outraged  by  the  long  encroach- 
ments of  the  land,  it  had  decided  to  assert  again  its  an- 
cient supremacy.  Then  I  was  reminded,  if  I  had  never 
been  before,  how  slight  a  rise  in  the  lake  would  submerge 
entire  counties  lying  upon  its  borders. 

A  large  part  of  this  Canadian  peninsula  is  scarcely  above 
the  ordinary  level  of  the  lakes.  The  whole  region  looks 
like  an  ancient  swale  and  a  more  ancient  lake  bottom. 
The  same  is  true  of  a  considerable  breadth  on  both  sides 
of  Lake  St.  Clair  and  the  Detroit  and  St.  Clair  Rivers.  Lake 
St.  Clair  itself— except  when  rampant — is  little  better  than 
a  marsh  with  a  river  running  through  it.  Among  naviga- 
tors it  is  the  opprobrium  of  the  lakes.  One  never  ceases 
to  hear  sailors  talk  about  "  the  flats,"  and  Congress  never 
ceases  to  be  importuned  to  make  another  lake  where  Na- 
ture is  in  the  very  act  of  blotting  one  out.  If  the  reader 
has  ever  taken  a  steam-boat  trip  through  the  lake,  he  could 
not  avoid  discovering  that  it  is  the  very  similitude  of  os- 
tentatious learning — "all  breadth  and  no  depth."     The 

L 


242  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

bullrushes  are  boldly  invading  and  occupying  it  on  every 
hand.  A  thousand  incipient  islands  are  breaking  up  its 
continuity.  Once  it  was  fifty  miles  in  width  and  a  hun- 
dred miles  long.  A  rife  of  ten  or  twenty  feet  would  make 
it  that  again. 

But  the  whole  series  of  lakes  is  nearly  of  the  same  level 
from  Chicago  to  Buffalo.  The  former  high  waters  of  Lake 
St.  Clair  imply  similar  floods  in  the  other  lakes.  Indeed, 
we  easily  discover  corroboration  of  this  in  the  topography 
of  the  country  at  Chicago,  Detroit,  and  Toledo.  These  cit- 
ies are  built  upon  the  slime  of  the  lakes,  and  a  slight  eleva- 
tion of  the  waters  would  bury  them  beneath  a  new  deposit 
of  lacustrine  mud.  The  artesian  wells  of  Toledo  are  sup- 
plied from  some  of  the  sandy  beds  of  the  ancient  lake  sed- 
iment, which  follow  the  general  configuration  of  the  under- 
lying drift,  and  come  to  the  surface  at  some  higher  level 
back  of  the  city. 

These  evidences  of  higher  waters  lead  us  to  inquire  for 
the  cause.  They  couM  scarcely  be  occasioned  by  a  great- 
er volume  of  water,  since  the  outlets  are  of  sufficient  ca- 
pacity to  prevent  its  accumulation.  Nothing  but  an  ob- 
struction of  the  outlet  can  explain  the  phenomenon.  This 
obstruction  must  have  existed  at  a  point  where  the  contig- 
uous shores  were  sufficiently  elevated  to  prevent  a  flank 
movement  of  the  water.  It  must  also  have  existed  at  a 
point  beyond  or  to  the  eastward  of  all  these  obvious  traces 
of  the  inundation.  It  could  not  have  been  at  Mackinac, 
for  that  would  not  have  flooded  Canada  West.  It  could 
not  have  been  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Huron  for  the  same  rea- 
son, and  because  the  contiguous  country  is  too  low.  It 
could  not  have  been  at  Buffalo  for  the  last-named  reason, 
and  also  because  the  country  between  Buffalo  and  Lake 
Ontario  belongs  to  the  submerged  area.  It  must  have 
been  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  River. 


FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  243 

I  have  said  the  Niagara  River  commenced  its  present 
gorge  during  the  Champlain  Epoch.  In  reality  there  was 
no  Niagara  River  when  this  work  commenced.  Lake  Erie 
stretched  down  the  valley  of  the  existing  river,  and  the 
overflow  of  its  basin  wore  the  notch  in  the  rocky  rim 
which  was  the  beginning  of  the  Niagara  River. 

Lake  Erie  stands  at  present  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  feet  above  Lake  Ontario.  At  the  time  of  which  I  am 
speaking  it  stood  three  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet  above 
Lake  Ontario,  and  filled  the  valley  of  Niagara  River  as  far 
as  the  heights  above  Lewiston  (Fig.  84).*  Indeed,  there 
are  clear  evidences,  in  the  form  of  beaches  containing  fresh- 
water shells,  that  the  level  of  the  river  was  once  forty  feet 
above  the  present  summit  of  the  falls.  No  barrier  has  ever 
existed  to  dam  the  water  to  this  height  except  the  escarp- 
ment at  Lewiston.  This  is  one  hundred  and  five  feet  above 
the  summit  of  the  falls,  and  thirty-eight  feet  above  Lake 
Erie.  The  indications  seem  to  be  conclusive  that  the 
waters  of  Lake  Erie  stood  thirty-eight  feet  higher  than  at 
present,  and  poured  over  the  bluff  at  Lewiston,  in  a  series 
of  cascades,  three  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet,  to  the  sea, 
which  at  this  time  filled  the  basin  of  Lake  Ontario.  Dur- 
ing the  subsequent  ages,  the  mighty  stream  has  dug  a 
gorge  in  the  solid  rock,  which  is  seven  miles  long,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  deep,  and,  on  an  average,  about  one  thou- 
sand feet  wide.  The  material  transported  from  this  gorge 
into  Lake  Ontario  is  over  three  hundred  and  forty  millions 

*  Explanation  of  Fig.  84. — The  diagram  on  the  following  page  is  in- 
tended to  illustrate  the  geological  position  of  Niagara  River  and  Falls,  and 
the  ancient  lake  levels  from  Lake  Ontario  to  Chicago.  The  vertical  scale 
is  560  feet  to  the  inch  ;  the  horizontal  scale  is  irregular.  The  diagram  is 
merely  a  series  of  sections  around  the  lakes,  placed  end  to  end.  The  dips 
of  the  strata  are  much  exaggerated.  The  two  portions  of  the  diagram 
join  each  other  along  the  line  a,  6,  c,  c?,  etc.  The  figures  against  the  ver- 
tical dotted  lines  show  the  heights  in  feet  above  the  sea  of  the  points  to 
which  the  lines  extend. 


FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  245 

of  cubic  yards,  and  weighed  nearly  seven  billions  of  tons. 
The  time  consumed  in  the  execution  of  this  stupendous 
piece  of  engineering  may  be  roughly  calculated  from  the 
observed  rate  of  recession  of  the  falls.  In  1842  Professor 
Hall  executed  a  careful  trigonometrical  survey  of  the  shore- 
lines and  landmarks  of  the  falls.  In  1855,  thirteen  years 
later,  M.  Marcou  made  careful  re- examinations,  which  he 
reported  to  the  Geological  Society  of  France.  From  these 
data  it  appears  that  the  Canadian  Fall,  over  which  the 
largest  body  of  water  is  discharged,  has  receded,  by  the 
wearing  of  the  rocks,  to  the  extent  of  twelve  feet,  or  a  lit- 
tle more  than  eleven  inches  a  year.  With  this  clew,  we 
determine  that  the  time  required  for  the  excavation  of  the 
entire  distance  from  Lewiston  is  over  thirty-five  thousand 
years.  This  presumes  the  rate  of  recession  has  always 
been  the  same.  The  more  I  consider  this  subject  the  more 
I  am  impressed  with  a  conviction  that  the  rate  of  recession 
was  formerly  more  rapid  than  during  the  last  one  hundred 
years.  I  am  willing  to  reduce  the  time  consumed  to  twen- 
ty thousand,  or  even  to  ten  thousand  years.  Geologists 
most  greedy  of  time  ought  to  be  satisfied  with  this  when  it 
is  considered  that  this  interval  is  but  the  unit  in  the  arith- 
metic which  calculates  the  time  consumed  in  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  globe.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  excavation 
of  the  great  gorge,  geological  agencies  had  strewed  the  sur- 
face with  drift-deposits,  some  of  which  had  been  transport- 
ed hundreds  of  miles.  Before  the  transportation  of  the 
drift,  the  basin  of  Lake  Ontario  had  been  scooped  out,  and 
the  vast  erosion  of  the  escarpment  at  Lewiston  had  been 
effected.  Before  the  period  of  the  erosion  was  that  of  the 
solidification  of  the  sediments ;  and  still  farther  back,  the 
incalculable  intervals  during  which  the  sediments  were  ac- 
cumulating five  miles  of  thickness.  At  the  commencement 
of  the  excavation  of  the  gorge,  the  fauna  which  populated 


246  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  region  was  essentially  the  same  as  now.  If,  in  an  in- 
terval of  twenty  or  even  of  ten  thousand  years,  little  per- 
ceptible change  has  taken  place  in  the  populations  of  the 
globe,  how  vast  a  period  must  have  elapsed  during  the 
progress  of  organic  mutations  which  have  twenty  times  re- 
sulted in  the  almost  complete  extinction  of  existing  forms, 
and  their  replacement  by  beings  of  other  types  ! 

I  said  that  the  level  of  Lake  Erie  was  once  at  the  top  of 
the  heights  of  Lewiston,  thirty-eight  feet  above  its  present 
altitude.  This  elevation  submerged  the  flats  to  the  east 
and  west  of  the  Detroit  and  St.  Clair  Rivers,  and  united 
Lake  Erie  with  Lake  Huron  by  a  shallow  expanse  of  water, 
which  in  some  places  possessed  a  breadth  of  fifty  miles  or 
more.  Still  farther,  the  level  of  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan 
was  raised  twenty-five  feet  above  their  present  altitude, 
and  a  portion  of  the  waters  of  the  upper  lakes  found  an 
out^t  from  Lake  Michigan  into  the  Des  Plaines  River,  and 
thence  into  the  Illinois  and  the  Mississippi — if,  indeed,  a 
large  portion  of  the  prairie  region  of  Illinois  was  not  sub- 
merged by  such  an  altitude  of  the  lakes.  At  the  same 
time,  Saginaw  Bay  of  Lake  Huron  stretched  into  the  centre 
of  the  peninsula  of  Michigan. 

This  is  not  the  highest  altitude  at  which  the  waters  of 
the  lakes  have  stood,  though  the  barriers  which  dammed 
them  have  long  since  disappeared.  Along  the  southern 
borders  of  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario,  the  rocks  arise  from 
their  more  southern  depressions,  and  face  the  lakes  in  bold 
escarpments  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  respect- 
ive levels  of  the  waters.  These  bluffs  have  been  the  rocky 
shores  of  the  lower  lakes.  For  unnumbered  ages  the  furi- 
ous north  wind  has  rolled  mad  waves  against  those  ada- 
mantine walls,  and  battlement  after  battlement  has  tum- 
bled down  and  been  ground  to  powder  by  the  tireless  beat- 
ing of  the  stormy  surge.     Between  the  foot  of  the  mural 


FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  247 


escarpment  and  the  present  margin  of  the  lake  is  a  Series 
of  parallel  terraces,  each  showing  the  altitude  at  which  the 
receding  waters  have  made  a  pause.  These  terraces  along 
the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  range  from  ninety  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  above  the  present  level  of  the 
water.  In  Huron  and  Sandusky  Counties  the  subsidence 
of  the  escarpment  permits  them  to  diverge  a  greater  dis- 
tance from  the  lake.  Curving  northward  into  Michigan, 
they  pass  through  Monroe,  Wayne,  and  Oakland  Counties, 
and  continue  in  that  direction.  They  are  recognized  again 
on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan. 

At  Mackinac  Island  are  deeply  engraved  records  of  a 
higher  level  of  the  waters.  The  island  itself  is  but  a  ves- 
tige of  an  ancient  formation  which  once  filled  the  straits, 
and  joined  the  highlands  on  the  west  and  south.  It  tow- 
ers, a  monument  of  the  destructive  agencies  of  geogony, 
three  hundred  and  eighteen  feet  above  the  lake.  The  prin- 
cipal plateau  of  the  island  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
above  the  lake.    In  the  midst  of  this  rises  "Sugar  Loaf,"  one 

hundred  and  thirty- 
four  feet  higher  (Fig. 
85).  This  is  a  rem- 
nant of  the  rocks  form- 
ing the  upper  plateau 
which  once  extended 
over  the  whole  island. 
It  is  a  conical  mass  of 
brecciated  limestone, 
all  whose  sides  bear 
the  marks  of  the  long- 
continued  action  of 
the  waves.  On  one 
side  an  ancient  grotto 

Pig.  85.  View  of  Sugar  Loaf,  Mackinac  Island,     has    thus    been    exca- 


248 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


vated,  into  which  the  surges  have  rolled  with  the  deafen- 
ing reverberations  of  a  sea-coast  "  purgatory."  The  prin- 
cipal plateau  of  the  island  is  limited  at  nearly  all  points  by 
an  abrupt  wall  dropping  down  into  the  deep  waters  of  the 
lake.  Here  is  a  beetling  cliff,  one  hundred  and  forty-five 
feet  high,  called  "  Lover's  Leap,"  connected  with  a  senti- 
mental Indian  legend.  In  another  place  is  "  Chimney 
Rock,"  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  feet  high,  and  in  an- 
other, " Robinson's  Folly."  At  "Arched  Rock"  (Fig.  86), 
_____  on  the  eastern  side, 

towering  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  feet 
above  the  lake,  the 
fierce  waves,  unable 
to  reach  the  solid 
and  unyielding 
brow  of  the  preci- 
pice, have  mined  be- 
neath it,  perforating 
the  limestone  wall ; 
and  a  natural 
bridge  hangs  there, 
with  one  end  rest- 
ing on  a  winged 
abutment  stretch- 
ing toward  the  lake. 
All  round  the  walls 
of  this  castellated 
and  charming  isl- 
and the  recording 
waves  have  left 
their  hieroglyphs, 
from  the  water's 
Mg.  86.  Arched  Rock,  Mackinac  Island.  edge  to  the  battle. 


FORMER  HIGHER  LEVEL  OF  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  249 

ments,  and  he  who  can  read  the  language  may  ponder  there 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  ages. 

While,  during  the  high  tides  of  the  lakes,  the  erosive 
waves  were  gnawing  at  the  rocks  of  Mackinac  and  Ohio, 
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan,  in  a  quieter  mood,  were  per- 
forming a  work  equally  enduring  and  peculiar.  Here  we 
find  our  attention  challenged  by  the  question  of  prairie 
origin  and  prairie  features,  but  the  views  to  be  presented 
will  be  held  in  abeyance  until  a  chapter  on  a  subsidiary 
topic  shall  have  been  interposed. 

L2 


250  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

VITALITY    OP   BURIED   VEGETABLE    GERMS. 

f"  VENTURE  here  to  enunciate  a  view  which  to  many 
-^-  may  appear  incredible.  For  some  years  past  I  have 
been  inclined  to  believe  that  the  germs  of  vegetation  which 
flourished  upon  our  continent  previous  to  the  reign  of  ice, 
and  many  of  which  must  have  been  buried  from  twenty  to 
one  hundred  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the  glacial  rub- 
bish, may  have  retained  their  vitality  for  thousands  of 
years,  or  even  to  the  present  time.  There  are  not  a  few 
indications  that  vegetable  germs  are  capable  of  such  pres- 
ervation, and  not  a  few  that  they  thus  exist  in  the  ancient 
drift.  The  consequences  of  such  remarkable  preservation 
possess  a  geological  importance  so  novel  and  interesting 
that  I  am  sure  the  reader  will  be  pleased  with  a  view  of 
the  facts  bearing  upon  the  doctrine. 

Many  familiar  facts  may  be  cited  which  certainly  have 
a  significance  far  greater  than  has  been  generally  susj^ect- 
ed,  and  which  tend  to  show  that  the  seeds  of  vegetation 
are  reposing  in  a  dormant  state  in  our  ordinary  soils  and 
subsoils.  Nothing  is  a  more  common  observation  than  to 
see  plants  making  their  appearance  in  situations  where  the 
same  species  was  previously  unknown,  or  for  a  long  time 
unknown,  and  under  circumstances  such  that  the  supposi- 
tion of  a  recent  distribution  of  seeds  is  quite  precluded. 

The  sudden  appearance  of  unwonted  species  frequently 
occurs  when  a  change  is  produced  in  the  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  soil.  Left  to  Nature,  certain  perennial  grasses 
secure  almost  exclusive  foothold  in  our  fields,  and  form  a 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED   VEGETABLE  GERMS.    251 

sod  in  which  the  ordinary  annuals  are  unable  to  nourish. 
Break  up  the  sod  after  any  number  of  years,  and  subdue  the 
perennial  grasses,  and  we  shall  have  a  crop  of  annuals  the 
first  season — Veronicas,  Chenopodiums,  Euphorbias,  Por- 
tulacas,  Ambrosias,  Crab  -  grasses,  Foxtails,  Panicums,  etc. 
Cease  cultivation,  and  the  Poas  and  Glycerias  will  imme- 
diately resume  possession.  Similarly,  the  pertinacity  with 
which  the  common  knot-grass  seizes  and  maintains  its  po- 
sition only  along  the  hardest-beaten  footpaths  is  notorious, 
while  the  greater  plantain  renders  itself  no  less  conspicu- 
ous growing  alongside.  Earth  thrown  out  of  cellars  and 
wells  is  generally  known  to  send  up  a  ready  crop  of  weeds, 
and,  not  unfrequently,  of  species  previously  unknown  in 
that  spot.  In  all  these  cases,  after  allowing  for  all  known 
possibilities  of  the  distribution  of  seeds  by  winds,  birds, 
and  waters,  it  still  seems  probable  that  germs  must  have 
previously  existed  in  the  soil. 

Similar  sudden  appearances  of  new  forms  take  place 
when  a  change  is  effected  in  the  chemical  nature  of  the 
soil.  Illustrations  are  familiar  to  every  agriculturist. 
How  soon  does  a  dressing  of  undecomposed  muck,  or 
peat,  or  sawdust  develop  a  crop  of  acid-loving  sorrel,  and 
how  readily  is  it  again  repressed  by  a  dressing  of  some  al- 
kaline manure  ?  Let  the  waters  of  a  brine-well  saturate  a 
meadow,  and  how  long  before  we  witness  the  appearance 
of  the  maritime  Scirpus  and  Triglochin,  or  some  other  salt- 
loving  plant  whose  germs,  unless  spontaneously  developed, 
must  have  lain  dormant  at  a  greater  or  less  depth  ? 

Something  of  the  same  nature  is  witnessed  on  the  disap- 
pearance of  dominant  species,  whether  through  the  agency 
of  man  or  the  processes  of  Nature.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  clearing  of  a  piece  of  forest  and  the  burning  of  the 
brush  is  almost  always  followed  by  the  appearance  of  cer- 
tain unwonted  plants  known  as  "fire-weeds."     In  many 


252  SKETCHES   OF   CREATION. 

cases  it  would  seem  highly  improbable  that  the  seeds  of 
such  plants  had  recently  been  transported  to  such  situa- 
tions at  the  moment  when  the  disappearing  forest  admits 
the  introduction  of  the  conditions  essential  to  their  growth. 
It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  seeds  existed  in  the  soil, 
ready  to  germinate  whenever  free  sunlight,  warmth,  and 
atmospheric  air  should  be  permitted  to  rouse  their  latent 
vital  energy.  Of  the  same  nature  is  the  recurrence  of  par- 
ticular forest  growths  upon  the  same  soil.  Not  unfre- 
quently  the  second  growth  is  of  a  very  different  nature 
from  the  first.  In  the  "  old  fields"  of  Virginia  and  other 
Southern  States,  the  soil,  cleared  originally  of  the  decidu- 
ous forest,  and  then  abandoned  after  years  of  continuous 
cropping,  sends  up  a  growth  of  pines  instead  of  deciduous 
trees.  In  some  parts  of  Southern  Ohio,  as  I  have  been  in- 
formed, a  forest  of  unmixed  locust-trees  follows  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  ordinary  mixed  forest. 

Mr.  Marsh,  in  his  learned  work  entitled  "Man  and  Na- 
ture," has  quoted  from  Dwight's  "  Travels"  his  account  of 
the  appearance  of  a  fine  growth  of  hickory  on  lands  in 
Vermont  which  had  been  permitted  to  lie  waste,  when  no 
such  trees  were  known  in  the  primitive  forest  within  a  dis- 
tance of  fifty  miles.  He  quotes  also  Dr.  Dwight's  account 
of  the  appearance  of  a  field  of  white  pines,  on  suspension 
of  cultivation,  in  the  midst  of  a  region  where  the  native 
growth  was  exclusively  of  angiospermous  trees.  "The  fact 
*that  these  white  pines  covered  the  field  exactly,  so  as  to 
preserve  both  its  extent  and  figure,"  says  Dr.  Dwight, 
"  and  that  there  were  none  in  the  neighborhood,  are  de- 
cisive proofs  that  cultivation  brought  up  the  seeds  of  a 
former  forest  within  the  limits  of  vegetation,  and  gave 
them  an  opportunity  to  germinate." 

In  this  connection  may  be  quoted  a  statement  of  Darwin, 
in  "  The  Origin  of  Species,"  to  the  effect  that  in  the  midst 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED   VEGETABLE  GERMS.    253 

of  a  very  sterile  heath  in  Staffordshire,  some  hundreds  of 
acres  were  planted  with  Scotch  fir,  and,  after  twenty-five 
years,  not  less  than  twelve  species  of  plants  (not  counting 
grasses  and  sedges)  had  made  their  appearance  in  the  plan- 
tation of  firs,  "which  could  not  be  found  in  the  heath,"  and 
this  though  the  fir-forest  seems  to  have  been  visited  only 
by  insectivorous  birds. 

The  existence  of  a  succession  of  forests  of  different  pre- 
vailing species  has  been  satisfactorily  established  in  Den- 
mark by  the  researches  of  Steenstrup  on  the  /Skovmose,  or 
forest-bogs  of  that  country.  These  bogs  are  from  twenty 
to  thirty  feet  in  depth,  and  the  remains  of  forest  trees  in 
successive  layers  prove  that  there  have  been  three  distinct 
periods  of  arborescent  vegetation  in  Denmark — first,  a  pe- 
riod of  the  pine ;  secondly,  a  period  of  the  oak ;  lastly,  a 
period  of  the  beech,  not  yet  arrived  at  its  culmination. 
The  dominant  species  of  each  period  flourished  to  the  en- 
tire exclusion  of  the  other  two  species.  Caesar  affirms  that 
the  Fagus  (beech)  and  Abies  (fir)  were,  in  his  time,  want- 
ing in  England ;  but  the  beech  is  now  plentiful ;  and  Har- 
rison tells  us,  in  his  " Historicall  Description  of  the  Hand 
of  Britaine?  that  "  a  great  store  of  firre"  is  found  lying 
"  at  their  whole  lengths"  in  the  "  fens  and  marises"  of  Lan- 
cashire and  other  counties,  where  not  even  bushes  grew  in 
hjgt  time.  No  doubt  such  extinct  forests  have  flourished 
in  America,  even  since  the  Glacial  Epoch,  and  have  stocked 
the  accumulating  soils  with  their  stores  of  vitalized  fruit- 
age, awaiting  some  future  resurrection ;  and  no  doubt  the 
"  fens  and  marises"  of  Lancashire,  under  suitable  circum- 
stances, would  reproduce  from  their  granaries  of  forest 
fruit  the  arboreal  vegetation  which  had  flourished  and 
disappeared  before  the  Roman  Conquest. 

Mr.  Marsh,  in  the  work  already  quoted,  after  expressing 
his  opinion  that  the  vitality  of  seeds  "  seems  almost  imper- 


254  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

ishable  while  they  remain  in  the  situation  in  which  Na- 
ture deposits  them,"  proceeds  to  cite  numerous  instances 
in  which  one  crop  of  plants  has  disappeared  on  a  change 
of  conditions,  and  another,  of  different  nature,  has  prompt- 
ly assumed  its  place,  originating  evidently  from  seeds  pre- 
existing for  ages  in  the  soil.  He  says,  "  Earth  brought  up 
from  wells  or  other  excavations  soon  produces  a  harvest 
of  plants  often  very  unlike  those  of  the  local  flora."  He 
goes  so  far  as  to  express  the  opinion  that  earth  ejected 
from  considerable  depths  by  a  certain  earthquake  convul- 
sion, to  which  reference  is  made,  and  which  soon  became 
covered  with  vegetation  "never  observed  in  that  region 
before,"  must  have  brought  with  it  the  seeds  from  which 
the  novel  vegetation  sprang,  under  "  the  influence  of  air 
and  sun,  from  depths  where  a  previous  convulsion  had 
buried  them  ages  before." 

From  such  facts  as  those  which  have  been  cited,  it  seems 
to  be  proven  that  the  seeds  of  plants  may  retain  their  vi- 
tality in  the  soil  and  subsoil  at  least  for  quite  a  number 
of  years.  The  facts  show  that  the  germs  exist  in  places 
where  we  have  no  knowledge  of  their  introduction,  and  in 
places  where  they  could  not  probably  have  been  introduced 
during  the  human  epoch.  Whence  come  the  germs  of  that 
vegetation  which  is  every  where  springing  up  in  situations 
to  which  recent  seeds  could  not  have  been  distributed? 
This  question  has  agitated  the  mind  of  many  an  inquirer 
who  would  have  shrunk  from  the  solution  which  I  venture 
to  offer.     Let  us  examine  the  facts. 

The  vegetation  which  characterized  the  close  of  the  Ter- 
tiary Epoch  was  probably  nearly  identical  with  that  exist- 
ing at  the  present  day  under  the  same  climatic  conditions. 
Even  in  the  older  Tertiary  Lignites  we  have,  according  to 
the  investigations  of  Lesquereux  and  Newberry,  the  re- 
mains of  plants  belonging  to  the  following  American  gen- 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED  VEGETABLE  GERMS.   255 

era,  viz. :  Oak,  Hickory,  Poplar,  Maple,  Mulberry,  Horn- 
beam, Box -elder,  Laurel,  Bay,  Dogwood,  Sumac,  Olive, 
Buckthorn,  Magnolia,  Smilax,  White  Cedar,  Sequoia,  Cy- 
press, and  Sabal.  These  identifications  have  been  made 
from  scanty  and  defective  material,  and  we  may  fairly 
presume  that  further  investigations  will  greatly  increase 
the  number.  Yet  these  plants,  belonging  probably  to  the 
earliest  Cenozoic  Epoch,  show,  according  to  Lesquereux, 
"the-  greatest  affinity  with  species  of  our  own  time." 
From  other  beds  of  the  middle  or  earlier  Tertiary  we  have 
still  other  existing  genera,  such  as  Persimmon,  Beech, 
Black  Gum,  Aristolochia,  etc.  The  facts  in  our  possession 
relative  to  the  middle  and  later  Tertiary  Epochs  show  a 
most  decided  approximation  to  the  existing  flora.  From 
a  pleiocene  deposit  near  Somerville,  Tennessee,  Lesquereux 
identified  the  following  recent  species,  viz. :  Carolina  Lau- 
rel, Carolina  Plum,  Myrtle-leaved  Oak,  and  Common  Beech. 
From  the  chalky  banks  of  the  Mississippi  River,  near  Co- 
lumbus, Kentucky,  a  collection  was  made,  of  which  all  the 
species  are  recent,  viz. :  Live  Oak,  Dwarf  Chestnut,  Winged 
Elm,  Gmelin's  Planer-tree,  Entire-leaved  Prinos,  New  Jer- 
sey Tea,  Pecan,  Honey  Locust,  and  Sweet  Flag.  It  is  true 
that  Dr.  D.  D.  Owen  has  assigned  the  deposit  containing 
these  remains  to  the  Post-Tertiary  Age ;  but  their  position 
is  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  below  the  ferruginous  sands 
containing  the  bones  of  the  extinct  sloth  Megalonyx  Jeffer- 
soni;  and,  as  the  nature  of  these  species  is  incompatible 
with  such  a  climate  as  we  universally  associate  with  the 
Glacial  Epoch,  it  is  quite  likely  this  assemblage  of  vegeta- 
ble remains  represents  the  general  nature  of  the  arboreal 
flora  in  existence  near  the  close  of  the  Tertiary  Age.* 

*  Dr.  Newberry  has  shown  that  even  the  Cretaceous  flora  of  North 
America  was  very  similar  to  that  now  existing. — Afaer.  Jour.  Set.  and 
Arts  [2],  xxix.,  215  et  seq.  See  also  Lesquereux's  determinations. — 
Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts  [2],  xlv.,  p.  104,  and  xlvii.,  p.  28G. 


256 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Although  our  positive  knowledge  of  the  vegetation  of 
the  period  immediately  preceding  the  advent  of  the  reign 
of  ice  is  confessedly  meagre,  it  is  certain  that  all  the  facts 
in  our  possession  point  to  close  specific  correspondence 
with  the  modern  vegetation  of  the  same  regions,  modified, 
certainly,  by  the  fact  that  even  in  the  latest  Tertiary  the 
climate  was  considerably  warmer  than  in  the  same  lati- 
tudes at  the  present  day. 

All  the  luxuriant  vegetation  which  flourished  at  the 
close  of  the  Tertiary  was  undoubtedly  swept  off  by  the 
events  which  characterized  the  reign  of  ice,  and,  as  has 
been  already  stated,  the  ruins  of  this  vegetation  were  en- 
tombed in  the  rocky  debris  created  by  the  moving  glacier. 
The  drift  deposits  became  the  vast  granary  in  which  Na- 
ture preserved  her  store  of  seeds  through  the  long  rigors 
of  a  geological  winter. 

But  what  evidences  have  we  that  the  seeds  of  plants  are 
capable  of  retaining  their  vitality  through  a  geological  pe- 
riod? 

The  ordinary  process  of  destruction  of  vegetable  tissues 
is  merely  an  oxydation  of  the  carbon  and  hydrogen  enter- 
ing into  their  constitution.  I  seriously  doubt  whether  the 
requisite  conditions  for  such  oxydation  exist  at  considera- 
ble depths  in  the  soil.  Mr.  Jabez  Hayden,  of  Windsor 
Locks,  Connecticut,  has  a  small  quantity  of  corn,  which  is 
part  of  a  bushel  or  more  uncovered  by  the  breaking  away 
of  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  River,  a  little  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Farmington,  not  many  years  since.  It  prob- 
ably dates  back  prior  to  the  settlement  of  Windsor  in  1635. 
The  kernels  had  been  charred  and  buried  below  the  ordi- 
nary depths  of  cultivation  (Stiles's  Hist.  Ancient  Windsor, 
p.  85). 

It  is  stated  that  the  piles  sustaining  the  "  London  Bridge" 
have  been  driven  five  hundred  years,  and  are  still  compar- 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED   VEGETABLE  GERMS.    257 

atively  sound.  Old  Savoy  Place,  in  the  city  of  London,  is 
sustained  on  piles  driven  more  than  six  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  and  they  are  yet  perfectly  sound.  The  ancient 
and  historic  city  of  Venice  consists  of  brick  and  stone 
structures  resting  upon  wooden  piles  which  were  driven  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries.  One  of  the  piles  taken 
up  from  the  bridge  built  by  the  Emperor  Trajan  across  the 
Danube  was  found  petrified  to  the  depth  of  three  quarters 
of  an  inch,  while  the  remainder  of  the  substance  was  un- 
changed after  an  interval  of  sixteen  hundred  years.  The 
timber  maul-handles,  shovels,  and  other  wooden  imple- 
ments found  in  the  ancient  mines  of  Lake  Superior  still  re- 
main in  a  good  state  of  preservation  in  cases  where  they 
have  been  immersed  in  water ;  and  the  wheels  employed  in 
draining  some  of  the  ancient  Roman  mines  in  Spain  are 
represented  to  be  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation  after 
the  lapse  of  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  ancient 
piles  in  the  lake  habitations  of  Central  Europe  retain  a  re- 
markable degree  of  soundness,  though  driven  before  the 
epoch  of  written  history. 

Passing  beyond  the  range  of  human  records,  we  remark 
the  existence,  along  the  Atlantic  borders  of  New  Jersey, 
of  extensive  buried  swamps,  in  which  the  trunks  of  the 
white  cedar  (  Cupressus  thyoides,  not  the  "White  Cedar"  of 
the  West)  are  found  in  such  a  state  of  preservation  that 
the  inhabitants  work  them  up  for  lumber.  So  extensive 
are  these  deposits  of  buried  tree-trunks  that  the  "  mining 
of  timber"  has  long  been  a  prominent  branch  of  business 
along  some  parts  of  the  beach  (Fig.  87).  They  lie  from 
two  to  fifteen  feet  beneath  the  surface.  We  may  form 
some  conjecture  in  reference  to  the  antiquity  of  these  fossil 
cedar  swamps  from  the  age  of  the  trees  which  have  evi- 
dently grown  upon  spots  that  had  been  occupied  by  still 
earlier  generations  of  trees.     Professor  Cook  informs  us 


258 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  87.  "Mining"  Cedar  Logs  in  an  ancient  Buried  bwanip  on  the  coast  of 
New  Jersey. 


that  the  number  of  annual  rings  in  the  trunk  of  one  of 
these  buried  trees  six  feet  in  diameter  was  one  thousand 
and  eighty,  while  beneath  it  was  another  trunk  counting 
five  hundred  rings,  which  had  evidently  grown  and  fallen 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED  VEGETABLE  GERMS.    259 

down  before  the  superincumbent  tree  had  commenced  its 
growth.  In  other  instances,  the  relative  positions  of  trees 
and  stumps  are  such  that  we  are  compelled  to  assign  to 
perfectly  sound  timber,  retaining  even  its  characteristic  ar- 
omatic odor,  an  antiquity  of  hundreds  and  even  of  thou- 
sands of  years.  (See  Cook,  Geology  of  New  Jersey,  1868, 
p.  343,  etc. ;  Lyell,  Second  Visit  to  the  United  States,  vol. 
i.,p.34.) 

Buried  tree-trunks  are  often  exhumed  from  glacial  drift 
at  the  depth  of  twenty  to  sixty  feet  from  the  surface.  Dr. 
Locke  has  published  an  account  of  a  mass  of  buried  drift- 
wood at  Salem,  Ohio,  fifteen  miles  north  of  Dayton,  where 
it  lies  from  thirty-seven  to  forty-three  feet  beneath  the  sur- 
face, imbedded  in  a  layer  of  ancient  mud.  The  museum  of 
the  University  of  Michigan  contains  several  fragments  of 
well-preserved  tree-trunks  exhumed  from  wells  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Ann  Arbor.  Such  occurrences  are  by  no  means  un- 
common. The  encroachments  of  the  waves  upon  the 
shores  of  the  "great  lakes"  reveal  whole  forests  of  the 
buried  trunks  of  the  White  Cedar  (Thuja  oceidentalis), 
bearing  scarcely  a  trace  of  the  work  of  destructive  agencies 
upon  them. 

Unaltered  vegetable  structures  have  been  found  in  geo- 
logical deposits  of  even  higher  antiquity.  It  is  known  that 
well-preserved  woody  tissue  has  been  frequently  exhumed 
from  deposits  of  Tertiary,  and  even  of  greater  age.  I  am 
iiB^ossession  of  pieces  of  drift-wood  from  the  Cretaceous 
sands  of  Alabama,  in  which  the  ligneous  tissue  is  so  fully 
preserved  as  to  be  capable  of  ignition,  like  recent  wood. 
Even  from  the  Coal  Measures  of  Michigan  I  have  made 
preparations  of  the  delicate  tissues  of  the  fronds  of  so- 
called  Scale-mosses  (Ju?igermanniacece) ;  and  from  the  coal 
mines  of  Lasalle,  in  Illinois,  I  have  collected  specimens  of 
exogenous  wood  of  a  brown  color  and  not  yet  carbonized, 


260 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


though  partially  pyritized.  All  these  examples  tend  to 
show  the  extreme  slowness  of  the  process  of  decay  in  ordi- 
nary vegetable  tissues  when  excluded  from  the  usual  con- 
ditions of  decay  by  burial  in  the  earth. 

The  oily  tissues  of  which  seeds  are  composed  are  still 
more  capable  of  resisting  the  tendency  to  dissolution,  and 
ought  certainly  to  remain  unchanged,  under  circumstances 
which  permit  such  perfect  preservation  of  ordinary  ligneous 
fibre.  The  evidences  are  very  conclusive  that  the  seeds  of 
ordinary  vegetation  may  lie  dormant  in  the  surface-soil  for 
half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  years.  The  seeds  of  the  various 
"  fire-weeds"  which  spring  up  on  a  forest  clearing  after  the 
brush  has  been  burned  off,  must  have  reposed  in  a  latent 
state  during  the  existence  of  the  forest  whose  disappear- 
ance is  the  signal  for  the  resumption  of  their  vital  activity. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  seeds  of  the  "old  field-pines,"  which 
have  probably  lain  for  an  age  or  more,  awaiting  the  matu- 
rity and  destruction  of  the  deciduous  forest  which  usurped 
the  soil.  How  many  ages  may  they  ha"ve  lain  there  ?  How 
many  more  might  they  have  lain,  and  still  been  found  ready 
for  the  first  opportunity  to  seize  a  foothold  ? 

There  are  some  facts  in  our  possession  which  are  still 
more  specific.  It  is  well  known  that  Dr.  Lindley  -raised 
three  raspberry  plants  from  seeds  discovered  in  the  stom- 
ach of  a  man  whose  skeleton  was  found  thirty  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  at  the  bottom  of  a  barrow  or  bu- 
rial-mound which  was  opened  near  Dorchester,  Engl^fci 
With  the  body  had  been  buried  some  coins  of  the  Emperor 
Hadrian,  from  which  we  are  justified  in  assuming  that  these 
seeds  had  retained  their  vitality  for  the  space  of  sixteen  or 
seventeen  hundred  years.  If  they  remained  undamaged 
that  length  of  time,  their  condition  was  practically  fixed ; 
and  who  shall  say  that  ten  thousand  years  would  have  pro- 
duced a  greater  effect  ? 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED   VEGETABLE  GERMS.    261 

Again :  Lord  Lindsay  states  that,  in  the  course  of  his 
wanderings  amid  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  he  stumbled  on% 
a  mummy  proved  by  its  hieroglyphs  to  be  at  least  two 
thousand  years  of  age.  On  examining  the  mummy  after 
it  was  unwrapped,  he  found  in  one  of  its  closed  hands  a 
bulb,  which,  when  planted  in  a  suitable  situation,  grew  and 
bloomed  in  a  beautiful  dahlia.  The  credibility  of  this  story 
is  very  questionable,  since  the  real  dahlia  is  a  tuberous-root- 
ed Mexican  genus,  not  known  to  botanists  till  the  year  1789. 
That  a  bulb  of  any  sort  germinated  under  the  circumstances 
alleged  is  highly  improbable,  since  the  characteristic  of  the 
surroundings  of  a  mummy  is  perfect  dryness,  which  would 
completely  change  and  devitalize  the  tissues  of  a  bud-like 
bulb.  It  is,  however,  more  credibly  asserted,  and  general- 
ly believed,  that  wheat  is  now  growing  in  England  which 
was  derived  from  grains  folded  in  the  wrappings  of  Egyp- 
tian mummies,  where  they  must  have  lain  for  two  or  three 
thousand  years.  Professor  Gray,  the  eminent  American 
botanist,  does  not  fully  credit  the  account,  but  Dr.  Carpen- 
ter, the  distinguished  English  physiologist  and  naturalist, 
gives  it  his  full  indorsement.* 

Professor  Agassiz  asserts  that  "  there  are  some  well-au- 
thenticated cases  in  which  wheat  taken  from  the  ancient 
catacombs  of  Egypt  has  been  made  t^sprout  and  grow." 
Dr.  Carpenter  even  goes  so  far  in  this  connection  as  to  give 
utterance  to  the  followin^observations,  which  happen  to 
be  extremely  pertinent  in  the  present  instance : 

"  These  facts  make  it  evident,"  he  says,  "  that  there  is 
really  no  limit  to  the  duration,  of  this  condition  (latent  vi- 
tality), and  that  when  a  seed  has  been  preserved  for  ten 
years,  it  may  be  for  a  hundred,  a  thousand,  or  ten  thou- 

*  On  this  subject  and  the  longevity  of  seeds  in  general,  see  Report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Patents  for  1857,  Agriculture,  p.  25G  (condensed 
from  the  Gardener's  Chronicle,  London). 


262  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

sand,  provided  no  change  of  circumstances  either  exposes 
it  to  decay  or  calls  its  vital  properties  into  activity.  Hence, 
where  seeds  have  been  buried  deep  in  the  earth,  not  by  hu- 
man agency,  but  by  some  geological  change,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  say  how  long  anteriorly  to  the  creation  of  man  they 
may  have  been  produced  and  buried,  as  in  the  following 
curious  instance :  Some  well-diggers  in  a  town  on  the  Pe- 
nobscot River,  in  the  State  of  Maine,  about  forty  miles  from 
the  sea,  came,  at  a  depth  of  about  twenty  feet,  upon  a  stra- 
tum of  sand.  This  strongly  excited  their  curiosity  and  in- 
terest, from  the  circumstance  that  no  similar  sand  was  to 
be  found  any  where  in  the  neighborhood,  and  that  none 
like  it  was  nearer  than  the  sea-beach.  As  it  was  drawn 
up  from  the  well  it  was  placed  in  a  pile  by  itself,  an  un- 
willingness having  been  felt  to  mix  it  with  the  stones  and 
gravel  which  were  also  drawn  up.  But  wThen  the  work 
was  about  to  be  finished,  and  the  pile  of  stones  and  gravel 
to  be  removed,  it  was  necessary  also  to  remove  the  sand- 
heap.  This,  therefore,  was  scattered  about  the  spot  on 
which  it  had  been  formed,  and  was  for  some  time  scarcely 
remembered.  In  a  year  or  twro,  however,  it  was  perceived 
that  a  number  of  small  trees  had  sprung  from  the  ground 
over  which  the  heap  of  sand  had  been  strewn.  These  trees 
became,  in  their  tuo^  objects  of  strong  interest,  and  care 
was  taken  that  no  injury  should  come  to  them.  At  length 
it  was  ascertained  that  they  w^e  Beach-plum-trees;  and 
they  actually  bore  the  Beach-plum,  which  had  never  been 
seen  except  immediately  upon  the  sea -shore.  The  trees 
had  therefore  sprung  from  §eeds  which  were  in  the  stra- 
tum of  sea-sand  that  had  been  pierced  by  the  well -dig- 
gers." It  can  not  be  doubted,  as  Carpenter  concludes, 
that  the  seeds  of  the  Beach-plum  had  lain  buried  since  the 
remote  period  when  that  part  of  the  state  was  the  shore 
of  the  slowly-receding  sea. 


VITALITY  OF  BURIED  VEGETABLE  GERMS.    263 

Such  a  fact,  so  striking  and  so  circumstantially  recorded, 
is  only  of  the  same  nature  as  others  less  critically  noted, 
which  daily  pass  before  our  eyes  in  the  upspringing  of 
vegetable  forms  from  the  diluvial  materials  thrown  out  of 
wells,  cellars,  and  other  excavations. 

The  bones,  the  hair,  and  even  the  flesh  of  the  extinct 
mammoth  have  been  preserved  in  glacial  deposits  on  the 
shores  of  Siberia.  In  so  complete  a  state  of  preservation 
has  the  flesh  been  found,  that  dogs  and  bears  greedily  de- 
voured it.  If  a  material  so  perishable  as  muscular  fibre 
could  be  preserved  since  an  epoch  which  antedates  au- 
thentic history,  is  it  not  more  probable  that  the  oily  tis- 
sues of  vegetable  seeds  could  resist  the  tendency  to  decay 
under  similar  circumstances  ? 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  crucial  observation  is  yet 
to  be  made.  If  vegetable  germs  exist  in  the  drift,  they 
can  be  discovered  beforehand.  I  am  not  aware  that  any 
thorough  search  has  ever  been  made  for  them ;  but,  until 
they  have  been  actually  detected,  it  is  probable  that  even 
the  convincing  facts  cited  above  will  fail  to  secure  univer- 
sal assent  to  the  doctrine  of  the  prolonged  vitality  of  the 
seeds  of  pre-glacial  vegetation.  While,  however,  the  case 
is  far  from  demonstrated,  it  may  fairly  be  submitted  that 
the  explanation  of  certain  facts  afforded  by  this  theory  is 
less  presumptuous  and  improbable  than  the  supposition 
of  spontaneous  generation,  the  fortuitous  distribution  of 
seeds  by  any  modern  agency,  or  any  other  explanation 
that  has  yet  been  offered. 


264  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

PRAIRIES    AND   THEIR   TREELESSNESS. 

THE  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  especially  those 
lying  within  the  limits  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois, 
constitute  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  North 
American  topography.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres, 
stretching  .through  all  the  central  and  western  portions  of 
the  state,  present  a  scene  of  almost  unbroken  level  and  tree- 
lessness.  The  great  prairies  are  neither  a  perfect  plain,  nor 
in  all  cases  completely  undiversified  with  arboreal  vegeta- 
tion. The  surface  is  generally  undulating ;  and  here  and 
there  rise  gravelly  knolls  and  ridges  on  which  the  timber 
has  obtained  a  foothold.  But  these  wooded  spots  are  often 
many  miles  apart,  and  scarcely  serve  to  rest  the  eye, 
wearied  with  the  monotony  of  an  interminable  clearing, 
fenceless  meadows,  and  unsheltered  farm-houses. 

The  traveler,  leaving  Chicago  by  one  of  the  great  south- 
ern routes — for  instance,  the  Chicago,  Alton,  and  St.  Louis 
Railway — passes  out  through  the  muddy  and  straggling 
outskirts  of  the  Western  metropolis,  and,  ere  he  has  thought 
of  the  great  prairies  through  which  he  had  expected  to  pass, 
he  finds  himself  at  sea.  Looking  from  his  car- window,  the 
country  landscape  seems  at  first  to  be  entirely  wanting. 
One  feels  as  if  passing  over  a  trellis-bridge  three  hundred 
feet  above  the  surrounding  region.  The  customary  objects 
— forests,  shade-trees,  fences,  houses,  distant  hills — which 
elsewhere  lift  themselves  to  the  horizontal  plane  of  the  eye, 
are  not  here.  The  traveler  must  make  the  second  effort, 
and  look  down  upon  the  level  of  the  country  upon  whose 


FMAIBIES  AND   THEIR  TBEELESSNESS  265 

bosom  he  has  launched.  The  sensation  is  that  which  one 
experiences  in  going  to  sea.  The  rattling  train  is  easily 
transformed  into  the  puffing  and  creaking  steam-ship,  while 
the  interminable  prairie,  mingling  its  distant  and  softened 
green  with  the  subdued  azure  of  the  summer  sky,  can  be 
likened  to  nothing  but  the  ocean's  boundless  expanse.  The 
ever-recurring  undulation  of  the  prairie  is  the  grand  ocean- 
swell  which  utters  perpetually  a  reminiscence  of  the  last 
storm,  while  the  evening  sun,  with  dimmed  lustre,  settles 
down  into  the  prairie's  green  sod,  as  to  the  mariner  he  sinks 
into  the  emerald  bosom  of  the  sea. 

Illinois  has  been  styled  the  garden  state  of  the  West. 
The  deep,  rich,  pulverulent  soil  of  the  upland  prairie,  and 
especially  its  readiness  for  the  plow,  without  the  interven- 
tion of  a  year's  hard  labor  in  opening  a  clearing,  have  al- 
ways constituted  powerful  attractions  for  the  settler  from 
the  stony  soils  of  New  England,  and  the  wooded  regions 
of  the  other  states.  It  is  extremely  doubtful,  however, 
whether  the  absence  of  forests  over  the  area  of  half  a  state 
possesses  a  balance  of  advantages.  Forests  possess  im- 
mense utilities  in  addition  to  furnishing  lumber  and  fuel. 
This  discovery  was  long  since  made  in  the  denuded  regions 
of  the  older  European  countries ;  and  Americans  are  talking 
at  times  as  if  they  were  growing  wiser.  Even  the  cobble- 
stones of  a  New  England  or  New  York  soil  are  not  unmit- 
igated inconveniences.  During  the  day  they  absorb  the 
warmth  of  the  sun,  and  at  night  they  retain  it  and  impart 
it  to  the  soil.  In  times  of  drought  they  screen  the  soil 
from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  and  thus  moderate  the  in- 
tensity of  the  heat.  They  diminish  the  evaporating  sur- 
face of  the  soil,  and  thus  diminish  the  effects  of  continued 
droughts.  A  loose  stone  is  a  shade ;  but,  unlike  a  tree,  it 
has  no  roots  of  its  own  to  creep  about  and  steal  the  moist- 
ure from  weaker  forms  of  vegetation.    A  few  stones  do  not 

M 


266  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

diminish  materially  the  amount  of  soil  upon  an  acre ;  and, 
with  the  benefits  which  they  confer,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
they  are  not  actually  to  be  desired,  especially  in  regions 
subject  to  drought.  A  field  will  produce  no  more  grain 
with  the  stones  picked  out  than  with  the  stones  left  in. 

From  our  earliest  knowledge  of  the  prairies,  speculation 
has  been  rife  as  to  their  origin.  The  old  and  popular  be- 
lief was  that  which  attributed  their  treelessness  to  the  an- 
nual burning  of  the  grass  by  the  Indians.  But  the  prairies 
present  other  phenomena  which  the  annual  burning  fails  to 
explain.  Besides,  the  treelessness  remains  in  regions  where 
the  burnings  have  ceased.  And,  lastly,  the  treeless  prairies 
were  not  the  only  regions  burned  by  the  Indians.  And  if 
they  were,  it  seems  more  likely  that  the  Indian  burned  the 
rank  grasses  because  the  region  was  treeless,  than  that  the 
region  became  treeless  from  the  burning  of  such  vegetation 
as  flourishes  in  the  shade  of  a  forest. 

It  has  sometimes  been  suggested  that  the  region  was 
originally  forest-covered,  and  that  the  southern  cane  flour- 
ished in  such  luxuriance  amongst  the  trees  as  to  rob  them 
of  their  moisture  and  nourishment,  and  thus  cause  their  ex- 
tinction. The  cane,  having  deprived  itself  of  the  protecting 
shade  of  the  forest,  was  in  turn  scorched  out  by  the  rays 
of  the  summer  sun.  This  theory  is  every  way  unsatisfac- 
tory. 

"With  others,  the  absence  of  trees  is  to  be  attributed  to 
the  dryness  of  the  atmosphere — and  consequently  of  the 
soil — at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  It  can  not  be  doubted 
that  the  treeless  plains  of  the  far  West,  and  also  other  re- 
gions, have  failed  to  produce  arboreal  growths  through  an 
insufficient  supply  of  moisture.  Still  other  treeless  regions 
are  such  from  an  excess  of  saline  constituents  in  the  soil. 
But  all  such  regions  have  nothing  in  common  with  the 
prairies  of  Illinois  except  their  treelessness.     The  topog- 


PRAIRIES  AND  THEIR  TREELESSNESS.         267 

raphy  and  soil-constitution  of  the  Illinois  prairies  points 
to  a  different  and  a  peculiar  history.  Moreover,  trees  oc- 
cupy the  drier  knolls  of  the  prairies  in  the  midst  of  the 
common  atmospheric  conditions. 

Exactly  the  reverse  of  this  theory  is  that  which  attrib- 
utes the  absence  of  trees  to  an  excess  of  moisture  in  the 
soil  at  certain  seasons.  But  we  well  know  that  there  is  no 
soil  or  situation  so  wet  and  stagnant  but  certain  trees  will 
flourish  upon  it — the  willow,  the  cottonwood,  the  beech, 
the  black  ash,  the  alder,  the  cypress,  the  tupelo,  the  water- 
oak,  the  tamarack,  the  American  arbor-vitae,  or  some  other 
tree — some  of  them  standing  joyously  half  the  year,  if  need 
be,  in  stagnant  water.  Many  swales  are  indeed  treeless ; 
but  is  this  in  consequence  of  the  inability  of  a  willow  to 
take  root  and  maintain  itself,  or  rather  in  consequence  of 
the  formation  of  the  swale  in  times  so  recent  that  the 
germs  of  trees  have  not  yet  been  scattered  over  it  ?  More- 
over, wetness  can  not  be  attributed  to  many  portions  of  the 
Illinois  prairies  which  are  entirely  treeless.  Is  there  a  dif- 
ferent cause  for  treelessness  here  ? 

Lastly,  it  has  been  suggested  within  a  few  years,  by  high, 
geological  authority,  that  the  lack  of  trees  is  caused  by  ex- 
cessive fineness  of  the  prairie  soil.  It  can  scarcely  be  de- 
nied, however,  that  other  soils,  as  pulverulent  as  that  of  the 
prairies,  are  densely  covered  with  forest  vegetation,  and 
that  in  the  same  latitudes  and  under  the  same  meteoro- 
logical conditions.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  soils  of  a 
coarser  texture  are  equally  treeless.  But  the  final  objec- 
tion to  this  theory,  and  to  all  theories  which  look  to  the 
physical  or  chemical  condition  of  the  soil,  or  even  to  cli- 
matic peculiarities,  for  an  explanation  of  the  treeless  char- 
acter of  the  upland  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  is  dis- 
covered in  the  fact  that  trees  will  grow  on  them  when  once 
introduced — not  water-loving  trees  exclusively,  but  ever- 


208  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

greens,  deciduous  forest-trees,  and  fruit-trees,  such  as  flour- 
ish in  all  the  arable  and  habitable  portions  of  our  country. 
Every  one  will  now  admit  that  trees  flourish  upon  the 
prairies.  In  proof  of  the  fact,  the  prairie  farmers  are  ac- 
tively engaged  in  their  introduction.  "The  prairies  *  *  *," 
says  Gerhard,*  "  may  be  easily  converted  into  wooded  land 
by  destroying  with  the  plow  the  tough  sward  which  has 
formed  itself  on  them.  There  are  large  tracts  of  country 
'where,  a  number  of  years  ago,  the  farmers  mowed  their 
hay,  that  are  now  covered  with  a  forest  of  young,  rapidly- 
growing  timber.  *  *  *  A  resident  of  Adams  County  testi- 
fies to  the  effect  that  locust-trees  planted,  or,  rather,  sown 
on  prairie  land  near  Quincy,  attained  in  four  years  a  height 
of  twenty-five  feet,  and  their  trunks  a  diameter  of  from  four 
to  five  inches.  *  *  *  In  like  manner,  the  uplands  of  St.  Louis 
County,  Missouri,  which  were  in  1823  principally  prairie 
lands,  are  now  covered  with  a  growth  of  fine  and  thrifty 
timber,  so  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  acre  of  prai- 
rie in  the  county."  This  testimony  is  confirmed  by  num- 
bers of  persons  from  various  parts  of  the  state  whom  I 
have  questioned  on  the  subject.  The  introduction  of  tim- 
ber as  a  branch  of  rural  industry  is  now  systematically 
pursued.  The  principal  drawback  to  the  cultivation  of 
forests  and  fruit-trees  is  the  violence  of  the  prairie  winds 
and  the  occasional  severity  of  the  wintry  weather. 

If  what  I  have  suggested  in  reference  to  the  persistent 
vitality  of  buried  vegetable  germs  be  true,  we  have  a 
ready,  simple,  and  beautiful  solution  of  this  long-vexed 
problem. 

There  are  pretty  satisfactory  evidences  that  the  soil  of 
the  prairies  is  of  lacustrine  origin.    It  has  the  fineness,  color, 

*  Illinois  as  it  Is,  p.  277.  Compare  also  Wells's  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  and 
Arts,  i.,  331  ;  Engelmann,  Ibid.  [2],  xxxvi.,  389  ;  Edwards's  Rept.  Dept. 
ofAgric.,l8Q2,  p.  495. 


PRAIRIES  AND*  THEIR   TREELESSNESS.         269 

and  vegetable  constituents  of  a  soil  accumulated  upon  a 
lake-bottom.  We  find  in  it,  moreover,  abundant  fossil  re- 
mains of  a  lacustrine  character.  Fresh -water  shells  of 
species  still  existing  in  Lake  Michigan  are  found  in  locali- 
ties many  miles  from  the  existing  shore.  Finally,  we  have 
found  all  around  the  chain  of  the  great  lakes  abundant 
proofs  that  their  waters  once  occupied  a  much  higher  level 
than  at  present.  We  have  discovered  the  obstacle  which 
dammed  the  waters  to  this  extraordinary  height.  In  short, 
we  have  ascertained  that  the  prairie  region  of  Illinois  must 
have  been  a  long  time  inundated,  whether  such  inundation 
contributed  to  the  characteristics  of  the  prairies  or  not.  I 
think  it  did.  If  I  ascertain  that  the  cause  for  an  inunda- 
tion exists ;  if  I  see  the  traces  of  an  inundation  all  the  way 
from  Niagara  River  to  Illinois ;  if  the  barrier  which  shuts 
out  Illinois  from  the  lake  is  not  one  third  the  height  of  the 
ancient  lake-flood ;  if  I  find  throughout  the  region  exposed 
to  inundation  the  peculiar  soil  deposited  by  fresh  waters, 
together  with  traces  of  lacustrine  animals  which  never 
wander  over  land,  do  I  not  discover  a  chain  of  facts  which 
necessitates  my  conclusion?  During  the  flood-tide  of  the 
lakes,  Lake  Michigan  must  have  found  an  outlet  toward 
the  south.  We  find  corroboration  of  this.  The  broad, 
and  deep,  and  bluff-lined  valley  of  the  Illinois  River  was 
never  excavated  by  the  present  inconsiderable  stream. 
The  deserted  river  valley  discoverable  at  intervals  far- 
ther north,  indicates  the  former  southward  flow  of  a  large 
volume  of  water.  At  Lemont  this  valley  is  distinct,  with 
its  bounding  bluffs,  and  its  "  pot-holes"  worn  in  the  solid 
rock  of  the  ancient  river-bed.  This  was  the  work  of  the 
lake  in  its  declining  stages.  At  the  earlier  period,  when 
the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  stood  one  or  two  hundred 
feet  above  their  present  level,  how  much  of  the  region 
south  and  west  of  Chicago  must  have  been  submerged  ? 


270  •  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION.   . 

The  ancient  lake  must  have  reached  its  arms  into  Iowa, 
Northern  Indiana,  and  Southwestern  Michigan. 

While  the  expanse  of  lacustrine  waters  was  brooding 
over  the  region  destined  to  become  a  prairie,  they  busied 
themselves  in  strewing  over  the  tombs  of  pre-glacial  germs 
a  bed  of  mud  which  should  forever  prevent  a  resurrec- 
tion. Lake  sediments  themselves  inclose  no  living  germs. 
You  will  see  the  seeds  of  grasses  and  the  fruits  of  trees, 
washed  in  by  the  recent  storm,  floating  upon  the  surface, 
and  eventually  drifting  to  the  lee-shore.  If  they  ever  sink 
to  the  bottom,  and  wrap  themselves  in  the  accumulating 
mud,  it  is  after  they  have  lost  their  vitality.  Sunken  and 
buried,  they  go.  to  decay.  Let  a  lake  be  drained,  and  the 
bottom  remains  a  naked,  barren,  parching,  shrinking  waste. 
No  herbs,  or  grasses,  or  trees  burst  up  through  the  pottery- 
like surface.  But  every  where,  from  beds  of  ancient  gla- 
cial materials,  vegetation  is  bursting  forth  and  announcing 
itself.  Lo,  here  I  am !  speaks  the  nodding  young  pine  that 
had  been  slumbering  just  beneath  the  surface  through  the 
long  and  undisputed  possession  of  the  deciduous  forest 
which  the  axe  has  just  mown  down.  Not  so  in  a  lake- 
bottom.  Here  are  the  cerements  of  the  dead,  not  the 
wrappings  of  the  slumbering. 

When,  therefore,  the  ancient  lake  relinquished  dominion 
over  Central  Illinois,  he  left  a  devastated  and  desolate 
country.  Around  the  ancient  shores  of  the  abandoned 
area  the  emerald  forest  had  stood  nodding,  and  blossom- 
ing, and  fruiting,  while  the  inundating  lake  had  washed 
the  slopes  down  which  the  oaken  and  beechen  roots  de- 
scended to  sip  refreshing  draughts.  Ever  since  the  time 
when  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  last  held  carnival  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  these  vigorous  trees  had  stood  smiling 
upon  the  face  of  the  freshening  residuum  left  in  Illinois  on 
the  final  retreat  of  the  oceans.     A  resurrected  forest  had 


PRAIRIES  AND   THEIR   TREELESSNESS.         271 

risen  from  the  tombs  of  the  preceding  epoch.  And  not 
alone  around  the  borders  of  the  widened  lake,  but  upon 
every  island  knoll  which  raised  its  head  above  the  denud- 
ing waters.  This  encircling  forest  and  these  isolated  island 
clumps  still  stood  and  nourished  when  at  length  the  lake 
receded. 

No  turf  carpeted  the  abandoned  lake-bottom.  No  oak, 
or  beech,  or  pine  raised  its  head  through  the  covering  of 
lake-slime  which  separated  the  slumbering-place  of  vegeta- 
ble germs  from  the  animating  influence  of  sun  and  air.  By 
degrees,  however,  the  floods  washed  down  the  seeds  of 
grasses  and  herbs  upon  the  desert  area,  and  humbler  forms 
of  vegetation  crept  from  the  borders  toward  the  centre. 
At  length  the  entire  area  smiled  with  vernal  flowers,  and 
browned  in  the  frosty  blasts  of  winter.  The  bulky  acorn, 
and  walnut,  and  hickory-nut  traveled  with  less  facility,  and 
the  forest  more  sluggishly  encroached  upon  the  lake's  aban- 
doned domain.  In  this  stage  of  the  history  the  Indian  was 
here.  For  aught  I  know,  he  was  here  while  yet  the  prairies 
were  a  lake-bottom.  His  canoe  may  have  been  paddled 
over  the  future  spires  of  Bloomington  and  Springfield,  and 
the  muscalonge  may  have  been  pursued  through  the  future 
streets  of  Chicago ;  but,  at  least,  the  Indian  was  present 
in  the  interval  of  time  by  which  the  herb  distanced  the 
tree  in  their  race  for  possession  of  the  new  soil.  In  this 
interval  he  plied  the  firebrand  in  the  brown  sedges  of  au- 
tumn, and  made  for  himself  an  Indian-summer  sky,  while 
he  cleared  his  favorite  hunting-ground  of  the  rank  growths 
which  impede  both  eye  and  foot.  While  the  Indian  was 
engaged  in  these  pursuits,  and  while  yet  the  forest  had  not 
had  time  to  extend  itself  over  the  prairie,  the  white  man 
came  up  the  lake  from  Mackinac,  crossed  over  the  prairies 
to  the  Mississippi,  saw  the  Indian  engaged  in  his  burnings, 
and  hastily  concluded  that  this  was  the  means  by  which 


272  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  trees  had  been  swept  off — ignorant  of  the  history  that 
had  passed,  and  which  was  eveii  then,  as  now,  in  very  prog- 
ress, and  which  was  even  then,  as  now,  actually  crowding 
the  forest  upon  the  prairie,  and  bringing  about  the  day 
when,  perhaps  a  thousand  years  hence,  the  prairies,  like  the 
forests  of  Lancashire,  will  live  only  in  history. 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  273 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

SOMETHING    ABOUT    OIL. 

HHHE  very  word  has  wrought  like  magic.  The  smell  of 
-■-  the  article  has  turned  men  crazy.  It  has  opened 
purse-strings  which  the  cries  of  the  orphaned,  the  tears  of 
the  widowed,  and  the  pleas  of  religion  could  never  loose. 
It  has  made  men  lavish  in  a  hopeless  enterprise  who  had 
no  pence  to  spare  under  the  counsels  of  wisdom.  It  has 
caused  men  to  scorn  the  admonitions  of  the  instructed  and 
professional,  to  trust  their  own  stark  ignorance  in  the  stake 
of  a  fortune.  It  has  led  the  self-reliant  and  pursey  capital- 
ist to  heap  contempt  on  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  sci- 
ence, to  follow  the  lead  of  his  own  olfactory.  All  this  be- 
cause "  oil"  is  a  synonym  for  gold. 

Auri  sacra  fames !  quid  non  mortalia  pectora  cogis  ? 

Since  the  historical  excitement  of  the  "  South-Sea  Bub- 
ble," the  business  world  has  hardly  been  invaded  by  such 
a  fever  of  speculation  as  raged  over  the  Northern  United 
States  from  1862  to  1866.  When  it  was  positively  settled 
that  oil  could  be  drawn  from  the  solid  rocks — oil  suited  to 
the  uses  of  illumination,  gas-making,  fuel,  and  lubrication — 
men  who  have  the  keenest  eye  to  utility,  and  who  counter- 
poise all  values  with  bullion,  were  constrained  to  admit 
that  Providence  had  done  more  for  our  race  than  they  had 
ever  dreamed.  No  doubt  many  men  made  suitable  recog- 
nition of  the  services  of  the  Almighty  in  facilitating  the 
ends  of  money-getting.  The  picture  which  memory  treas- 
ures, however,  is  that  of  a  herd  of  porcine  quadrupeds  jos- 

M2 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  215 

tling  each  other  for  the  largest  share  of  their  master's  al- 
lowance. 

At  first  it  was  generally  supposed  that  one  locality  was 
as  likely  as  another  to  yield  the  oleaginous  fluid,  and  ex- 
periments innumerable  were  instituted  wherever  men  could 
be  found  whom  the  infectious  fever  had  reached.  We  now 
know  that  not  one  neighborhood  in  a  thousand  affords  the 
geological  conditions  requisite  to  success.  Another  pre- 
cipitate and  erroneous  conclusion  was  that  which  assumed 
the  surface  configuration  of  the  earth  to  be  the  only  essen- 
tial condition  of  oil  accumulation.  Wherever  a  region 
could  be  found  with  a  physical  geography  like  that  of  Ve- 
nango County — wherever  a  creek  like  Oil  Creek  had  scored 
a  country  underlaid  by  sandstone  like  Northwestern  Penn- 
sylvania— there  might  have  been  seen  the  men  whose  ex- 
perienced olfactories  were  employed  to  test  the  odor  of 
every  bog,  and  stain,  and  film  which  prying  eyes  could 
bring  to  light.  Especially  if  such  a  creek  were  bordered 
by  a  flat  walled  in  by  rocky  bluffs — but  most  especially  if 
such  a  flat  could  be  found  at  the  fork  of  two  streams,  en- 
vironed by  rocks  and  hills  of  Pennsylvania  sandstone,  were 
the  "oil-smellers"  in  high  ecstasies.  Happy  the  squatter 
whose  steep  and  rugged  hill-sides  and  narrow  intervales 
afforded  these  first-class  evidences  of  "  productive  prop- 
erty." I  know  of  many  an  instance  in  which  his  land  was 
tripled  in  market  value  by  the  magic  touch  of  the  magician 
of  the  hazel  wand.  The  same  kind  of  sandstone  was  essen- 
tial ;  and  it  is  marvelous  that  Nature  had  so  disposed  it 
that  the  oil-seeker  could  in  every  instance  detect  also  the 
"  first,"  "  second,"  and  "  third"  sandstones  after  the  Venan- 
go style.  No  matter  upon  what  formation  the  exploration 
might  be  progressing — perhaps  a  thousand  feet  below  or 
above  the  geological  horizon  of  Venango  County — these 
oil-hunters,  who  had  a  wisdom  above  geology,  could  infal- 


276  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION, 

libly  parallelize  every  formation  with  that  of  Venango 
County. 

Another  popular  error  was  that  of  regarding  beds  of 
coal  as  the  source  of  the  oil.  This  led  searchers  for  the 
coveted  fluid  to  prefer  the  borders  of  coal-fields,  or  even 
the  regions  underlaid  by  coal.  Often  it  seemed  to  be  a 
matter  of  indifference  whether  it  were  calculated  that  the 
oil  would  naturally  rise  or  sink  through  the  rocks.  With 
many  the  question  was  never  considered.  With  most, 
however,  the  opinion  was  entertained — and  to  this  day  is 
cherished — that  oil  naturally  descends  through  the  strata. 
I  have  seen  it  gravely  stated  in  published  treatises  on  the 
subject  that  our  native  petroleum  is  the  "  drainage  of  the 
coal-measures."  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous.  What 
connection  can  exist  between  the  oil  deposits  of  Enniskillen 
(Ontario)  and  the  nearest  coal-beds,  at  least  one  hundred 
miles  removed?  What  between  the  oil  accumulation  of 
Manitoulin  Island  and  the  nearest  coal-beds  two  hundred 
miles  distant?  Moreover,  the  coal-measures  are  every 
where  less  saturated  with  oil  than  many  formations  of 
more  ancient  origin. 

"  Surface  shows"  have  been  the  fascination  of  many.  The 
places  of  most  copious  escape  to  the  surface  were  regarded 
as  the  favored  spots  where  the  "drainage  from  the  coal- 
measures,"  in  disregard  of  the  laws  of  gravity  and  hydro- 
dynamics, had  obligingly  deposited  itself.  Such*" shows" 
were  always  illusory.  A  great  "  surface  show"  is  a  great 
waste.  When  Nature  plays  the  spendthrift  she  retains  but 
little  treasure  in  her  coffers.  This  was  the  lesson  learned 
at  great  cost  by  the  confident  capitalists  who  took  "  stock" 
in  the  "  surface  shows"  of  Paint  Creek,  in  Northeastern 
Kentucky.  The  production  of  petroleum  in  quantities  of 
economical  importance  has  always  been  from  reservoirs  in 
which  Nature  for  ages  had  been  hoarding  it  up,  instead 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  277 

of  making  a  superficial  and  deceptive  display  of  her 
wealth. 

But  there  is  no  illusion  that  has  levied  a  heavier  tax 
upon  the  folly  and  credulity  of  oil-seekers  than  the  bitu- 
minous smell  emitted  by  certain  rocks,  accompanied  gen- 
erally by  the  visible  presence  of  more  or  less  of  the  bitu- 
minous matter.  The  Corniferous  limestone  must  take  the 
praise  of  being  the  most  successful  fool-detective  of  any 
touchstone  ever  applied  to  the  herd  of  oil-seekers.  This 
limestone  is  very  remarkable  for  the  general  abundance  of 
oily  and  bituminous  matters  disseminated  through  it.  Not 
unfrequently  fragments  of  the  rock  present  a  black  color 
and  unmistakable  pitchy  smell,  which  are  quite  seductive. 
I  have  often  seen  it  dripping  with  a  tarry  exudation  which 
could  be  gathered  up.  Nay,  I  have  seen  clear  petroleum 
flowing  from  small  cavities  in  the  formation,  and  published 
statements  of  the  phenomenon  as  early  as  1859  and  1860. 
Nevertheless,  the  conditions  of  oil  -  accumulation  are  not 
fulfilled  in  this  formation,  and,  as  a  historical  fact,  no 
productive  well  is  known  to  be  supplied  from  the  forma- 
tion. 

These  observations  were  made  by  certain  geologists 
while  yet  the  oil  excitement  continued  at  its  height. 
They  were  published  to  the  world  as  warnings  against 
the  deceptive  solicitations  to  investment  which  this  for- 
mation presented.  And  yet  men  daily  suffered  themselves 
to  be  deceived.  A  thousand  dollars  spent  in  drilling  a 
hole  in  this  limestone  was  cheerfully  paid  by  men  who 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  offer  five  cents  for  the  endow- 
ment of  a  chair  of  geology  in  some  reputable  college  or 
university.  Hundreds  of  such  holes  were  bored.  The 
business  had  the  mysterious  fascinations  of  a  lottery.  The 
failure  of  a  company  at  Toledo  did  not  deter  from  an  iden- 
tical venture  in  Sandusky.     A  dozen  failures  in  the  neigh- 


278  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

borhood  of  London,  Ontario,  did  not  suffice  to  insure  from 
the  enchantment  the  very  next  man  who  gazed  upon  a 
limestone  cliff  reeking  with  the  oozings  of  bitumen.  And 
all  this  infatuation  was  indulged  in  spite  of  scientific  advice, 
or  in  blissful  ignorance  of  scientific  teachings.  Sweet  is 
anticipation.  An  Ohio  man  showed  me  one  day  a  quantity 
of  fragments  of  this  limestone,  which  were  completely  sat- 
urated after  the  usual  style.  It  was  a  new  sight  to  him, 
and  he  felt  assured  that  Nature  had  simply  used  them  as 
a  roofing  over  an  immense  reservoir  of  oil.  I  recognized 
the  formation  at  a  glance,  and  remembered  fifty  instances 
in  which  it  had  been  pierced  without  success.  I  assured 
the  gentleman  that  it  would  be  useless  to  bore  in  that 
rock.  My  advice  saved  a  friend  from  becoming  a  fellow- 
victim,  but  the  phio  gentleman  returned,  and,  like  hun- 
dreds of  others,  resolved  to  trust  his  own  ignorance  in 
preference  to  professional  skill.  He  bored  his  hole,  and — 
it  is  still  there  ! 

In  another  instance,  a  gentleman  of  another  state  became 
fascinated  by  the  smell  of  oil  about  an  old  stone-quarry  in 
the  Corniferous  limestone.  "  Surely  the  oil  must  be  treas- 
ured in  these  rocks,"  he  said  to  himself.  So,  at  great  ex- 
pense, he  leased  ground,  erected  buildings,  employed  hands, 
and  bored  a  hole  about  six  hundred  feet  in  depth.  As  in 
all  explorations  of  this  formation,  the  never-failing  smell 
of  oil  was  continually  taken  for  a  "  fine  show,"  and  he  per- 
severed in  pushing  downward.  At  length,  however,  the 
smell  of  oil  gave  out,  and  courage  was  kept  up  by  smell- 
ing occasionally  a  piece  of  the  surface-rock,  or  stirring  the 
mud  and  water  that  had  accumulated  in  the  depressions 
of  the  quarry.  The  smell  was  a  perpetual  invigorator. 
Every  sniff  was  worth  fifty  dollars  to  the  grand  enter- 
prise. Every  gas-bubble  that  could  be  conjured  to  the 
surface  was  good  for  another  check.     But  at  length  the 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  279 

enterprise  had  been  prosecuted  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
was  regarded  as  just  upon  the  eve  of  consummation  and 
fruition.  Now  the  geologist  must  be  called  in  to  puff  the 
enterprise  and  sell  the  stock.  Alas !  he  had  the  ungrate- 
ful duty  of  informing  his  employer  that  he  had  pierced  en- 
tirely through  the  Corniferous  limestone  that  had  cheered 
him  with  its  aromatic  exhalations,  and  that  he  had  entered 
the  Niagara  limestone,  and  would  probably  "strike  fire" 
before  he  "struck  oil."  To  palliate  the  disappointment, 
he  had  to  add  that  the  result  could  positively  have  been 
announced  in  the  beginning,  without  the  expenditure  of  a 
dollar  in  boring.  This  man  expended  six  or  eight  thou- 
sand dollars  in  a  most  inexcusable  and  wasteful  ignorance 
of  the  geological  conditions,  but  yet  endeavored  to  recover 
half  of  the  moderate  geological  fee  which  he  had  paid  to 
be  informed  of  the  hopelessness  of  his  case. 

The  Corniferous  limestone  is  extensively  distributed 
throughout  the  West,  and  has  afforded  a  wide  field  for  the 
display  of  credulity  that  could  not  believe  the  truth,  and 
avarice  that  could  not  spend  enough  in  a  bootless  enter- 
prise. It  stretches  in  a  broad  belt  from  Columbus,  in  Ohio, 
northward  to  near  the  state  line,  where  it  bifurcates,  one 
belt  trending  northwestward  across  Northern  Indiana  and 
into  Southwestern  Michigan,  passing  under  Lake  Michigan, 
and  curving  eastward,  so  as  to  reappear  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state  and  form  the  headlands  about  Mackinac. 
The  other  belt  trends  northeastward,  passing  into  South- 
eastern Michigan,  beneath  the  western  end  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  reappearing  in  the  neighborhood  of  Woodstock  and 
London,  in  Ontario,  whence  it  deflects  to  the  northwest, 
and  passes  under  the  middle  of  Lake  Huron,  reappearing 
in  the  headlands  and  islands  of  Michigan  some  distance 
southeast  of  Mackinac.  Throughout  nearly  this  whole  ex- 
tent it  has  been  riddled  by  borers  for  oil,  but  to  this  day 


280  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

no  productive  and  paying  well  has  ever  been  opened  in 
this  formation. 

The  Niagara  limestone  has  proved  locally  a  similar 
cause  of  mistaken  ventures.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Chi- 
cago some  of  the  beds  of  this  limestone  are  eminently  bi- 
tuminous. Chicago  has  several  times  made  discoveries 
which  were  destined  to  enrich  her — if  we  could  believe 
the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  amount  of  fatness  in  her 
rocky  substratum.  Indeed,  "the  spirits"  themselves,  in 
looking  down  through  the  rocks  which  underlie  the  city, 
were  egregiously  humbugged  by  this  rock  "of  color." 
Samples  of  this  Chicago  humbug  may  be  examined  in  the 
old  ivy-mantled  and  oil-bedraggled  walls  of  the  Second 
Presbyterian  Church  in  that  city.  The  oil  fried  out  of 
the  rock  by  the  summer's  sun  has  admirably  imitated  the 
dusky  brush  of  antiquity,  as  modern  art  has  learned  to  im- 
itate the  time-scarred  products  of  the  pencil  of  a  Rubens 
or  a  Raphael. 

The  Coal-measures,  also,  from  the  wide-spread  belief  that 
they  are  the  source  of  native  petroleum,  have  been  faith- 
fully explored  and  expensively  bored,  with  scarcely  better 
success  than  in  the  Corniferous  limestone.  There  has  hard- 
ly been  a  good  well  that  is  known  to  have  been  supplied 
from  the  Coal-measures. 

Crude  petroleum  is  not  a  product  of  definite  composi- 
tion. It  seems  to  be  a  varying  mixture  of  several  hydro- 
carbons, some  of  which,  as  naphtha,  volatilize  with  rapidi- 
ty when  exposed  to  the  atmosphere ;  others,  as  kerosene, 
slowly ;  while  others,  as  bitumen,  are  nearly  fixed.  It  con- 
tains also  varying  quantities  of  aluminous  matters  and  oth- 
er impurities. 

It  occurs  in  stratified  rocks  of  all  ages,  from  the  Lauren- 
tian  to  the  recent.  It  has  even  been  observed  in  some 
rocks  of  a  granitic  structure.    The  mere  presence  of  petro- 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  283 

leuni  in  a  formation  is  far  from  being  evidence  that  it  ex- 
ists in  large  quantities.  Observation  has  shown  that  it 
does  not  exist  in  large  quantities  in  any  formation,  except 
under  certain  intelligible  conditions.  Its  presence  in  small 
quantities  is  to  be  expected. 

It  is  an  opinion  almost  universal  among  geologists  that 
petroleum  has  been  produced  from  organic  remains.  Hence, 
long  before  the  discovery  of  the  Eozoon  in  Laurentian  rocks, 
it  had  been  inferred  that  organic  life  existed  upon  our  planet 
during  the  accumulation  of  those  rocks,  because,  among  oth- 
er reasons,  they  afford  conspicuous  quantities  of  petroleum. 
Geologists  are  somewhat  divided  in  opinion  as  to  whether 
animal  or  vegetable  organisms  have  afforded  most  of  the 
native  oil.  Little  dissent  exists,  however,  from  the  doc- 
trine that  most  of  the  oil  occupying  the  pores  and  pockets 
of  fossiliferous  limestones  has  been  derived  from  animal 
bodies,  while  that  saturating  shales  and  arising  from  shales 
has  had  a  vegetable  origin.  As  the  oil  of  commerce  is  prob- 
ably derived  from  the  latter  source,  it  appears  that  we  are 
to  regard  our  commercial  oil  as  a  vegetable  product. 

Petroleum  and  the  other  hydrocarbons  are  produced  from 
organic  matters  #y  distillation  in  closed  vessels.  Any  veg- 
etable substance  is  capable  of  affording  them.  The  refuse 
of  the  kitchen  may  be  made  to  illuminate  the  mansion.  Ar- 
tificial distillation  of  any  of  the  rocks  containing  organic 
remains  gives  rise  to  petroleum.  Ordinary  black  shales 
abound  in  vegetable  matter  mostly  in  a  state  of  comminu- 
tion, and  they  readily  afford  large  quantities  of  oil  and  gas. 
They  are,  in  fact,  distilled  on  the  large  scale  in  some  Euro- 
pean countries  for  the  sake  of  these  products.  It  has  also 
been  undertaken  in  this  country,  but  without  favorable  re- 
sults economically.  Nature  herself  is  engaged  in  this  busi- 
ness, and  competition  with  her  is  hazardous.  Cannel  coal, 
however,  which  is  only  a  highly  carbonaceous  shale,  was 


282  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

used  for  the  production  of  "coal  oil,"  or  "Breckenridge 
oil,"  some  years  before  the  discovery  of  native  petroleum. 
Hence  arose  the  name  "  coal  oil,"  which,  in  some  sections 
of  the  country,  is  still  applied  to  refined  petroleum,  al- 
though it  never  had  any  relations  to  the  Coal-measures. 
Peat  and  lignite  are  capable  of  employment  for  the  same 
purposes. 

The  deep-seated  shales  of  the  earth's  crust  are  inclosed 
in  rocky  retorts  hermetically  sealed.  The  unquenched 
fires  of  the  molten  nucleus  of  the  planet  continue  to  impart 
their  warmth  to  the  ever-cooling  crust.  The  rocky  retorts 
in  Nature's  vast  laboratory  are  warmed — their  organic  con- 
tents undergo  a  slow  distillation — the  products  escape  in 
the  form  of  gas  or  oil,  and  slowly  filter  through  pores  and 
crevices  toward  the  surface,  till  intercepted  by  some  imper- 
vious stratum.  These  products,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case;  can  not  descend.  They  are  lighter  than  water,  and 
must  tend  to  rise  through  the  water  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  are  disengaged. 

The  largest  portion  of  oil  and  gas  thus  elaborated  es- 
capes to  the  surface  and  is  lost.  In  order  to  prevent  this 
escape,  the  retort  must  be  furnished  with  a  closed  con- 
denser or  receiver.  The  exhalation  ascending  from  the 
mother  shale  must  be  intercepted  by  a  stratum  of  a  clayey 
and  impervious  character.  Beneath  this  the  oil  and  gas 
will  accumulate,  displacing  the  water  previously  occupy- 
ing the  space.  This  reservoir  may  be  an  open  cavity,  a 
fissure,  a  shattered  stratum  of  rock,  or  a  mere  porous  sand- 
stone.    Here  the  oil  will  be  stored. 

But  it  is  obvious  that  in  the  course  of  time  a  tendency 
will  be  manifest  toward  lateral  extension  over  an  indefinite 
distance,  so  that  the  products  will  be  little  concentrated 
in  place,  if  they  do  not  even  find  a  leak  in  the  roof  and 
slyly  escape  to  the  surface.     In  order  that  these  products 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  283 

may  be  locally  restricted,  the  impervious  stratum  must 
present  the  form  of  a  dome  or  roof.  The  underlying  strata 
may,  and  generally  do,  conform  in  position  to  the  roofing 
strata.  We  have  here  the  requisite  conditions  for  accumu- 
lation. Some  portion  of  the  oil  and  gas  may  filter  through 
to  the  surface,  or  it  may  not.  Obviously,  if  the  outlet  be 
large,  the  product  must  escape  as  fast  as  elaborated.  If 
the  reservoir  be  nearly  closed,  it  may  hold  the  products  of 
the  slow  distillation  of  thousands  of  years.  When  one  of 
these  store-houses  is  exhausted  it  will  be  filled  again,  but 
perhaps  not  before  the  millennium. 

I  said  that  the  oil  and  gas  would  displace  the  water  pre- 
viously occupying  the  spaces  beneath  the  roof.  It  is  plain 
that  these  substances  must  be  hard  pressed  by  the  sur- 
rounding waters,  re-enforced  as  they  are  on  all  sides  by  a 
virtual  column  reaching  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  which 
may  be  a  hundred  or  five  hundred  feet  above.  The  lateral 
pressure  of  a  column  of  water  five  hundred  feet  high  is 
enormous.  All  this  the  forming  oil  and  gases  must  resist. 
No  wonder  that  when  given  vent  from  above  they  some- 
times burst  forth  with  tremendous  violence.  At  a  well 
which  I  visited  in  Knox  County,  Ohio,  the  pressure  of  the 
confined  gas  was  180  pounds  to  the  square  inch,  in  addition 
to  the  pressure  of  a  column  of  water  600  feet  high.  It  es- 
caped from  the  mouth  with  a  roaring  sound  which  could  be 
heard  at  the  distance  of  a  mile.  The  supply  was  sufficient 
to  illuminate  a  large  city,  and  it  continued  to  escape  for 
several  months.*  When  conducted  horizontally  through 
a  pipe  to  the  outside  of  the  building  and  ignited,  it  formed 
a  ragged  and  spiteful  stream  of  fire  of  the  diameter  of  a 
hogshead,  which  roared  like  a  conflagration,  and  caused  an 
illumination  which  was   seen  at  the  distance   of  sixteen 

*  This  was  in  May,  1866.  A  letter  from  Peter  Neff,  Esq.,  of  Gambier, 
dated  June,  1868,  states  that  this  well  is  still  "  blowing." 


284  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

miles.  We  can  form  but  little  conception  of  the  circum- 
stances under  which  such  an  enormous  volume  of  gas  can 
be  confined  at  the  depth  of  six  hundred  feet  beneath  the 
surface. 

The  escape  of  oil  at  the  surface  of  a  well  is  caused  some- 
times by  mere  hydrostatic  pressure,  as  water  rises  in  com- 
mon Artesian  wells.  More  frequently,  perhaps,  the  oil  is 
forced  up  by  the  elastic  reaction  of  confined  gases.  An 
open  cavity,  or  a  porous  portion  of  rock  bounded  on  all 
sides  by  impervious  walls — which  constitutes  a  virtual  cav- 
ity— may  be  partly  filled  with  oil,  while  gases  occupy  the 
higher  portions  of  the  cavity.  Such  a  cavity,  whether 
actual  or  virtual,  may  possess  any  form  or  extent — or  may 
consist  of  a  number  of  cavities  connected  by  narrow  pas- 
sages or  mere  fissures.  In  nearly  all  cases,  more  or  less  gas 
accompanies  the  oil,  and  subsists  under  a  very  high  degree 
of  pressure.  The  pressure  in  such  cases  is  not  the  hydro- 
static pressure  of  water,  but  a  consequence  of  the  continued 
generation  of  gas  and  oil  long  after  the  cavity  had  been 
filled.  If  a  boring  happens  to  penetrate  the  higher  portion 
of  such  a  cavity  (Fig.  89),  the  gas  at  once  rushes  forth  with 
greater  or  less  violence  and  persistence.  As  soon,  however, 
as  the  tension  is  relieved,  the  escape  ceases.  "No  oil  will  be 
obtained  in  such  a  case  without  applying  suction,  since 
there  is  no  hydrostatic  pressure  exerted  from  behind,  and 
the  reaction  of  the  gas  tends  rather  to  confine  the  oil  in  the 
lowest  ramifications  of  the  cavity. 

Suppose,  however,  on  boring  a  hole  for  oil,  we  happen  to 
penetrate  some  of  the  lower  portions  of  the  cavity  occupied 
by  the  oil  (Fig.  89,  b).  The  elastic  pressure  of  the  confined 
gas  above  will  at  once  force  the  oil  up,  and  produce  a  spout- 
ing or  blowing  well.  The  flow  must  necessarily  subside 
by  degrees  as  the  confined  gas,  by  the  escape  of  the  oil, 
acquires  more  space  for  its  accommodation.     It  may  con- 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL. 


285 


Fig.  89.  Two  Oil  Wells. 
a.  A  blowing  well.    b.  A  flowing  well. 

tinue,  however,  until  the  cavity  is  exhausted  of  its  oil,  after 
which  pumprng  will  be  of  no  avail.  If  the  confined  gas  at- 
tains its  equilibrium  before  the  oil  has  been  completely- 
forced  from  the  cavity,  it  is  evident  that  the  remainder 
must  be  obtained  by  pumping.  There  is  no  cavity  so  large, 
however,  as  not  to  be  destined  to  ultimate  exhaustion. 
Every  oil  well,  of  whatever  class,  is  destined  to  abandon- 
ment. It  is  true  that  Nature  is  constantly  at  work  replen- 
ishing the  exhausted  reservoirs,  but  her  accumulations  are 
slow.     Her  working  days  are  centuries. 

Intermittent  wells  appear  to  act  in  some  cases  precise- 
ly after  the  manner  of  intermittent  springs.  More  fre- 
quently, however,  it  is  manifest  that  the  combined  action 
of  gas  and  oil  produces  the  phenomenon.  In  boring  a 
well,  suppose  a  stream  of  gas  is  struck  one  hundred  feet 
from  the  surface  of  the  rock,  and  a  small  stream  of  oil 
twenty  feet  below  the  gas.     The  entrance  of  oil  fills  twen- 


286  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

ty  feet  of  the  hole,  and  begins  to  submerge  the  fissure  at 
which  the  gas  is  escaping.  The  gas  forces  its  way  through 
the  oil  with  a  sputtering  sound,  bubble  after  bubble  rising 
to  the  surface.  As  the  oil  ascends,  the  gas  makes  louder 
and  louder  complaints,  till  finally,  summoning  all  its  accu- 
mulated energies,  it  hoists  the  superincumbent  column  of 
oil  to  the  surface,  and  pours  it  out  in  a  stream  of  a  few 
seconds'  duration.  *The  flow  then  ceases,  and  the  same 
operation  begins  to  be  repeated.  After  a  minute  or  more 
of  renewed  grumbling  and  sputtering,  the  pent-up  gas 
again  relieves  itself,  and  thus  the  work  continues.  The 
same  results  would  ensue  if  oil  and  gas  found  entrance  at 
the  same  fissure,  or  even  if  the  gas  were  admitted  at  any 
distance  beneath  the  entrance  of  a  small  supply  of  oil. 

The  amount  of  oil  that  has  been  ejected  from  certain 
wells  is  marvelous  to  relate.  Though  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania has  produced  numerous  flowing  wells  of  wonderful 
capacity,  there  is  no  quarter  of  the  world  where  the  pro- 
duction has  attained  such  prodigious  dimensions  as  in  1862 
upon  Oil  Creek,  in  the  township  of  Enniskillen,  Ontario. 
The  first  flowing  well  was  struck  there  January  11, 1862, 
and  before  October  not  less  than  thirty-five  wells  had  com- 
menced to  drain  a  store-house  which  provident  Nature  had 
occupied  untold  thousands  of  years  in  filling  for  the  uses — 
not  for  the  amusement — of  man.  There  was  no  use  for  the 
oil -at  that  time.  The  price  had  fallen  to  ten  cents  per  bar- 
rel. The  unsophisticated  settlers  of  that  wild  and  wooded 
region  seemed  inspired  by  an  infatuation.  Without  an  ob- 
ject save  the  gratification  of  their  curiosity  at  the  unwont- 
ed sight  of  a  combustible  fluid  pouring  out  of  the  bosom 
of  the  earth,  they  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  plying 
their  hastily  and  rudely  erected  "  spring-poles"  to  work  the 
drill  that  was  almost  sure  to  burst,  at  the  depth  of  a  hun- 
dred feet,  into  a  prison  of  petroleum.     Some  of  these  wells 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  287 

flowed  three  hundred  and  six  hundred  barrels  per  day. 
Others  flowed  a  thousand,  two  thousand,  and  *three  thou- 
sand barrels  per  day.  Three  flowed  severally  six  thousand 
barrels  per  day;  and  the  "Black  &  Mathewson"  well  flowed 
seven  thousand  five  hundred  barrels  per  day !  Three  years 
later,  that  oil  would  have  brought  ten  dollars  per  barrel  in 
gold.  Now  its  escape  was  the  mere  pastime  of  full-grown 
boys.  It  floated  on  the  water  of  Black  Creek  to  the  depth 
of  six  inches,  and  formed  a  film  upon  the  surface  of  Lake 
Erie.  At  length  the  stream  of  oil  became  ignited,  and  the 
column  of  flame  raged  down  the  windings  of  the  creek  in 
a  style  of  such  fearful  grandeur  as  to  admonish  the  Cana- 
dian squatter  of  the  danger,  no  less  than  the  inutility  and 
wastefulness,  of  his  oleaginous  pastimes.  From  detailed 
determinations,  I  have  ascertained  that,  during  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1862,  no  less  than  five  millions  of  barrels 
of  oil  floated  off  upon  the  water  of  Black  Creek — a  nation- 
al fortune  totally  wasted,  as  inherited  fortunes  are  apt  to 
be  wasted,  by  those  not  educated  to  an  understanding  of 
the  amount  of  labor  and  time  consumed  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  such  fortunes.     [See  Appendix,  Note  VIII.] 

The  general  conditions  of  oil-accumulation  may  be  thus 
epitomized : 

1.  A  formation  containing  the  material  for  the  produc- 
tion of  oil  by  slow  spontaneous  distillation. 

2.  A  porous  formation  or  reservoir  above  the  mother 
rock,  or  within  it,  in  which  the  oil  may  be  accumulated. 

3.  An  overlying  impervious  formation,  which  shall  pre- 
vent the  escape  of  the  product  to  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

4.  A  dome-shaped  conformation  of  the  impervious  roof, 
which  shall  prevent  the  lateral  escape  of  the  oil,  or  its  dis- 
semination through  spaces  too  extensive. 

The  failure  of  either  one  of  these  requisites  will  convert 
all  the  other  indications  into  illusory  and  seductive  temp- 


288  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

tations.  Some  of  these  conditions  it  is  impossible  to  ascer- 
tain without  considerable  general  geological  knowledge, 
and  a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  local  geology  of  the 
region  under  consideration. 

In  determining  upon  the  first  condition,  it  is  necessary 
to  know  what  are  the  characteristics  of  a  formation  con- 
taining the  materials  for  oil,  and  what  particular  forma- 
tions in  the  chronological  series  have  been  proven  to  con- 
tain such  materials.  Experience  has  shown  that  commi- 
nuted vegetable  matters  disseminated  through  a  matrix 
of  fine  argillaceous  materials,  and  forming  a  black,  or  car- 
bonaceous, or  bituminous  shale,  are  the  chief  source  of  sup- 
ply in  all  the  productive  regions  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  The  intimate  mixture  of  vegetable  and  argilla- 
ceous particles  seems  to  facilitate  the  chemical  rearrange- 
ments involved  in  oil- genesis.  Pure  vegetable  matters 
form  beds  of  coal,  in  which  the  organic  material  is  approx- 
imately fixed.  The  distinction  between  the  "splintery" 
and  "  fatty"  coals  corresponds  with  their  difference  in  pu- 
rity. Cannel  coals  are  highly  carbonaceous  shales.  Like 
the  "  black  shale"  of  the  West,  they  afford  copious  supplies 
of  liquid  hydrocarbons. 

The  mother-rock  of  the  oil  in  some  of  the  most  produc- 
tive regions  of  the  continent  seems  to  be  the  "black  shale" 
of  the  West,  which  is  the  Genesee  shale  of  the  New  York 
geologists.  This  fact  was  first  pointed  out  by  my  friend 
Professor  Newberry,  now  of  Columbia  College.  I  have 
little  doubt  that  this  formation  affords  the  oil  obtained  in 
Northwestern  Pennsylvania;  parts  of  Enniskillen  and  Both- 
well,  in  Ontario ;  in  Eastern  and  Central  Eastern  Ohio ;  in 
the  Glasgow  region  of  Southern  Kentucky,  and  in  North- 
ern and  Middle  Tennessee.  It  is  also  probable  that  it  sup- 
plies the  oil  in  most  of  the  wells  of  Southwestern  Pennsyl- 
vania, West  Virginia,  Southeastern  Ohio,  and  Northeastern 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  289 

Kentucky.  These  wells,  however,  are  bored  through  some 
portion  of  the  coal-measures  or  underlying  conglomerate, 
though  it  is  not  certain  that  any  important  supply  has  been 
reached  by  any  well  which  terminated  within  the  range  of 
the  coal-beds. 

In  the  lower  portion  of  the  Hamilton  group  is  anothei 
black  shale,  known  in  New  York  as  the  "  Marcellus  Shale," 
but  assuming  at  the  West  so  calcareous  a  character  that  it 
has  not  been  generally  distinguished  from  the  proper  lime- 
stones of  the  Hamilton  group.  It  presents  itself  in  Mich- 
igan and  Ontario  as  a  mass  of  black,  shaly  limestone  or  cal- 
careous shale,  overlaid  by  the  thin-bedded  and  argillaceous 
limestones  of  the  Hamilton  group  proper.  I  am  led  to  re- 
gard this  formation  as  the  chief  source  of  petroleum  in  the 
Enniskillen  and  Bothwell  regions  of  Ontario. 

In  the  Cincinnati  group  is  another^black  shale  which  is 
believed  to  supply  the  wells  in  the  Burkesville  region  of 
Southern  Kentucky,  and  on  Manitoulin  Island  of  Lake  Hu- 
ron. Not  unlikely,  some  of  the  impure  coals  of  the  sub- 
conglomerate  series  have  afforded  supplies  to  wells  termi- 
nating in  the  conglomerate  in  West  Virginia  and  the  neigh- 
boring portion  of  Kentucky.  The  oil  springs  of  California 
are  supplied  from  formations  of  much  more  recent  date. 

No  limestone  is  known  to  be  the  mother-rock  of  large 
supplies  of  petroleum.  It  is  true  that  the  Corniferous  lime- 
stone is  saturated  and  blackened  in  many  localities  by  the 
presence  of  bituminous  matters ;  and  it  is  true  that  this 
formation  lies  beneath  the  productive  oil  regions  of  West 
Virginia,  Western  Pennsylvania,  and  Enniskillen,  in  Onta- 
rio. It  is  due,  also,  to  one  of  the  most  eminent  authorities 
in  chemical  geology  to  state  that  Dr.  T.  S.  Hunt  entertains 
the  opinion  that  the  Corniferous  limestone  is  probably  the 
source  of  petroleum  in  the  several  regions  named,  and  es- 
pecially in  Ontario.     He  has  embraced  numerous  opportu- 

N 


290  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

nities  to  expound  and  enforce  his  views,  insomuch  that  the 
conviction  has  obtained  great  currency  in  Canada  that  this 
limestone  is  the  principal  source  of  petroleum  in  that  prov- 
ince. Under  this  conviction,  scores  of  oil  wells  have  been 
bored  throughout  the  belt  of  Canadian  territory  immedi- 
ately underlaid  by  the  Corniferous  limestone.  If  this  for- 
mation, say  they,  is  the  source  of  the  oil  obtained  at  Ennis- 
killen,  where  it  lies  five  hundred  feet  from  the  surface,  let 
us  proceed  to  some  region  where  this  formation  approaches 
nearer  the  surface,  and  thus  save  several  hundred  feet  of 
boring.  Though  this  reasoning  has  been  put  in  practice  in 
multitudes  of  cases,  both  in  Canada  and  the  United  States, 
I  am  not  aware  of  a  single  well  bored  in  the  Corniferous 
limestone  that  has  produced  sufficiently  to  pay  expenses. 
I  do  not  regard  the  inference  acted  upon  as  legitimately 
drawn  from  Dr.  Hunt's  views ;  for  he  must  perceive  that, 
even  were  this  limestone  the  source  of  petroleum-supplies, 
it  must  have  evaporated  throughout  the  regions  of  surface- 
outcrop  of  tne  formation. 

But  the  Corniferous  limestone  seems  not  to  be  the  source 
of  petroleum-supplies  even  in  those  regions  where  the  super- 
position of  another  formation  has  arrested  wastage.  If  it 
were  the  source  of  such  marvelous  quantities  as  have  been 
drawn  from  the  Canadian  strata,  its  own  cavities  and  inter- 
stices should  certainly  be  charged  with  the  liquid.  To 
test  this  precise  question,  a  "  test  well"  was  bored  at  Ennis- 
killen  at  the  joint  expense  of  parties  interested,  and  was 
continued  over  two  hundred  feet  in  this  formation;  but 
from  the  time  of  entering  it  the  signs  of  oil  were  materially 
diminished  instead  of  increased.  The  Corniferous  limestone 
has  also  been  penetrated  at  St.  Clair,  in  Michigan,  under 
circumstances  as  favorable  as  possible  for  the  discovery  of 
any  great  quantities  of  oil  which  may  be  stored  up  in  its 
recesses.     The  salt  well  at  that  place  extended  through  the 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  291 

whole  thickness  of  the  Hamilton  group  and  the  Corniferous 
limestone,  but  with  nothing  more  than  continued  "  signs" 
of  oil.  The  same  was  done  in  the  salt  well  at  Port  Austin, 
and  in  the  deep  boring  at  Jackson,  in  the  same  state. 

In  addition  to  these  and  other  negative  evidences  that 
the  view  of  Dr.  Hunt  is  untenable,  we  have  the  demonstra- 
tion of  experiment  upon  the  constitution  of  limestones  and 
black  shales.  The  amount  of  oil  that  can  be  extracted 
from  any  sample  of  the  Corniferous  limestone  is  utterly  in- 
significant in  comparison  with  the  amount  obtainable  from 
the  Genesee  shale.  It  is  a  matter  of  ocular  demonstration 
that  the  Genesee  shale  incloses  a  vast  supply  of  the  mate- 
rial for  petroleum-making,  while  the  Corniferous  limestone 
contains  almost  none  of  the  material,  and  comparatively  lit- 
tle of  the  generated  product.  I  shall  insist,  then,  with  my 
distinguished  friend  Dr.  Newberry,  late  President  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  upon 
the  correctness  of  that  view  which  regards  the  black  shales 
as  the  chief  generators  of  supplies  of  native  petroleum.  I 
dissent  from  the  position  of  Dr.  Hunt  with  the  utmost  defer- 
ence to  the  weight  of  his  authority,  and  only  because  I  have 
enjoyed  opportunities  seldom  equaled  to  examine  the  geol- 
ogy of  all  the  "  oil-regions"  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  petroligenous  formation  may  be  present  in  the  ab- 
sence of  reservoirs  for  tlie  reception  of  the  product.  There 
is  a  well-defined  belt  along  the  eastern  and  the  western 
slopes  of  the  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan  which  is  imme- 
diately underlaid  by  the  Genesee  shale,  capped  by  a  de- 
posit of  argillaceous  surface  materials  adequate  to  prevent 
wastage ;  but  no  oil  has  accumulated,  because  no  space  has 
been  provided  for  it.  In  some  portions  of  the  Enniskillen 
region,  twenty  miles  distant,  the  geological  conditions  are 
perfectly  identical,  except  that  a  bed  of  gravel  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  the  drift  materials,  and  immediately  upon  the 


292  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

Genesee  shale.  This  bed  of  gravel  is  the  reservoir,  and 
becomes  charged  with  a  supply  of  thick  petroleum  called 
"  surface  oil."  Some  wells  have  yielded  thousands  of  bar- 
rels of  surface  oil.  It  may  be  necessary  to  add  that  in 
some  portions  of  Enniskillen  the  Genesee  shale  has  been 
removed,  and  the  surface  wells  are  evidently  supplied  from 
the  lower  Marcellus  shale,  which  also  stocks  the  crevices 
of  the  Hamilton  limestones.  In  Venango  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Trumbull,  and  Knox,  and  contiguous  counties  in 
Ohio,  the  Genesee  shale  is  overlaid  by  porous  sandstones 
which  serve  as  reservoirs  of  the  oil.  In  the  Glasgow  re- 
gion of  Southern  Kentucky,  the  formation  overlying  the 
Genesee  shale  is  the  Mountain  limestone;  but  this  is  in 
places  arenaceous,  and  in  others  vesicular  and  cavernous, 
and  thus  furnishes  the  requisite  conditions  of  oil-accumula- 
tion. In  one  instance  at  least,  in  that  region,  the  Genesee 
shale  itself  affords  the  reservoir  for  the  storage  of  its  pro- 
ductions. In  West  Virginia  the  oil  seems  to  accumulate 
in  the  conglomerate  at  the  base  of  the  Coal-measures.  The 
same  is  the  case  in  Southwestern  Pennsylvania,  Southeast- 
ern Ohio,  and  Northeastern  Kentucky.  The  reservoir  in 
the  Burkesville  region  of  Southern  Kentucky  is  found  in 
the  shattered  shaly  limestones  of  the  Cincinnati  group. 
These  are  reproduced  in  physical^  characters  in  the  shat- 
tered shaly  limestones  of  the  Hamilton  group,  which  serve 
as  the  place  of  deposit  of  the  oils  of  Ontario. 

I  close  this  sketch  of  the  geological  phenomena  of  petro- 
leum by  presenting  a  synopsis  of  oil  regions  and  the  for- 
mations tributary  to  their  supplies. 

I.  The  black  shales  of  the  Cincinnati  group  afford  oil  which 
accumulates  (1)  in  the  fissured  shaly  limestones  of  the  same 
group,  and  supplies  (A)  the  Burkesville  region  of  Southern 
Kentucky,  and  (B)  Manitoulin  Island  in  Lake  Huron. 

II.  The  Marcellus  shale  affords  most  of  the  petroleum 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  OIL.  293 

which  accumulates  (2)  in  the  fissured  shaly  limestones  of 
the  Hamilton  group,  and  thus  supplies  (C)  the  Ontario  oil 
region,  locally  divided  into  (a)  the  Bothwell  district,  (b) 
the  Oil-Springs  district,  and  (c)  the  Petrolea  district. 

The  Marcellus  shale  affords  also  a  large  portion  of  the 
oil  which  accumulates  (3)  in  the  drift  gravel  of  the  Onta- 
rio region. 

III.  The  Genesee  shale,  with  perhaps  some  contributions 
from  the  Marcellus  shale,  affords  oil  which  accumulates  (4) 
in  cavities  and  fissures  within  itself  in  (D)  some  of  the  Glas- 
gow region  of  Southern  Kentucky. 

.  It  affords  also  the  oil  which  accumulates  in  (5)  the  sand- 
stones of  the  Portage  and  Chemung  groups  in  (E)  North- 
western Pennsylvania  and  contiguous  parts  of  Ohio. 

It  affords  also  the  oil  which  accumulates  in  (6)  the  sand- 
stones of  the  Waverly  (Marshall)  group,  in  (F)  Central  Ohio. 

It  affords  also  that  which  accumulates  in  (7)  the  moun- 
tain limestone  of  the  Glasgow  region  of  Kentucky  and  con- 
tiguous parts  of  Tennessee,  as  also  some  of  that  which  is 
found  in  the  drift  gravel  of  the  Ontario  region. 

IV.  The  shaly  coals  of  the  false  Coal-measures,  aided, 
perhaps,  by  the  Genesee  and  Marcellus  shales,  seem  to  af- 
ford the  oil  which  assembles  in  (8)  the  coal  conglomerate 
as  worked  in  (G)  Southwestern  Pennsylvania,  (H)  West 
Virginia,  (I)  Southern  Ohio,  and  the  contiguous  but  com- 
paratively barren  region  of  Paint  Creek,  in  Kentucky. 

V.  The  Coal-measures  may  perhaps  be  regarded  as  af- 
fording a  questionable  amount  of  oil,  which  may  have  been 
found  within  the  limits  of  (9)  the  Coal-measures  in  the  West 
Virginia  and  neighboring  regions. 

From  this  exhibit  it  appears  that  the  principal  supplies 
of  petroleum  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  have  been  gen- 
erated in  four  different  formations,  accumulated  in  nine  dif- 
ferent formations,  and  worked  in  nine  different  districts. 


294  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Fig.  90.  View  of  the  Salt  Works  at  Mason  City,  West  Virginia. 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

SOMETHING   ABOUT   ROCK-SALT   AND    GYPSUM. 

COMMON  salt,  upon  which  the  chemist  has  imposed  the 
more  dignified  title  of  chloride  of  sodium,  is  a  mineral 
almost  universally  distributed  through  the  stratified  por- 
tion of  the  earth's  crust.  Like  those  other  substances  of 
universal  utility  to  man — petroleum,  coal,  iron,  water,  and 
lime — it  is  supplied  by  Nature  to  every  habitable  region 
of  the  terrestrial  surface.  Like  lime,  which  is  the  chief 
constituent  of  the  bones  and  teeth  of  man  and  the  other 
vertebrates,  the  shells  of  molluscous  animals,  and  the 
mountains  of  coral  accumulations  reared  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  common  salt  also  subserves  the  necessities  not 
only  of  man,  but  of  the  quadrupeds  and  various  other  ter- 
restrial animals,  including  insects,  and  is  the  characteristic 
constituent  of  sea- water,  the  home  of  two  thirds  of  all  the 
animals  now  existing,  and  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the 
animals  of  former  geological  ages. 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  ROCK-SALT  AND   GYPSUM.  295 

The  salt  of  the  rocks  is  the  residuum  of  the  once  univer- 
sal ocean.  The  reader  will  remember  that  reference  has 
already  been  made  to  the  origin  of  salt  lakes,  like  those  of 
Utah  and  the  Caspian  and  Aral  Seas.  Such  lakes  are  but 
remnants  of  the  last  oceanic  inundation.  They  occupy  de- 
pressions in  the  terrestrial  surface  from  which  there  is  no 
outlet.  If,  like  Lake  Superior,  they  had  been  drained  to 
the  sea,  the  original  saline  waters  would  long  since  have 
been  replaced  by  fresh  waters  from  the  clouds. 

In  consequence  of  the  changed  condition  of  the  earth, 
the  amount  of  evaporation  from  the  surfaces  of  these  in- 
land seas  has  generally  exceeded  the  contributions  of  fresh 
water  from  the  clouds.  Their  saltness  has  therefore  been 
intensified,  and,  in  many  cases,  a  deposit  of  crystallized  salt 
has  been  formed  upon  the  bottom  and  around  the  shores. 
Indeed,  there  have  been  salt  lakes  that  are  now  extinct,  in 
consequence  of  the  exhalation  of  their  waters ;  and  in  the 
place  of  each  remains  a  salt  plain,  the  surface  of  which  is 
composed  of  salt  and  the  other  mineral  constituents  of  the 
ancient  sea-water,  variously  intermingled  with  argillaceous 
matter  washed  in  from  the  surrounding  country.  The  in- 
terior of  the  American  continent  furnishes  abundant  phe- 
nomena of  this  kind,  stretching  from  Utah,  through  the 
Great  American  Desert,  to  Mexico.  Such  products  are 
the  residua  of  salt  lakes  which  have  evaporated  since  the 
surface  received  its  existing  configuration.  It  will  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  extensive  salt-beds  exist  in  Ne- 
vada, which  are  derived  from  the  leachings  of  the  salifer- 
ous  strata  of  the  mountains ;  and  it  may  be  that  some  of 
the  ancient  salt  lakes  of  the  region  were  supplied  with  salt 
to  some  extent  by  contributions  from  similar  sources.  This, 
nevertheless,  would  not  prove  that  all  salt  lakes  have  been 
similarly  fed.  Besides,  if  it  should  appear  that  they  are, 
we  have  still  to  account  for  the  existence  of  strata  of  salt 


296  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

packed  away  among  the  solid  rocks;  and  there  is  no  ex- 
planation so  natural  and  so  consonant  with  what  we  know 
of  the  history  of  the  world  as  the  doctrine  of  evaporated 
sea-waters.  How  the  waters  of  the  sea  came  into  posses- 
sion of  their  saltness  is  a  question  of  primeval  chemistry  to 
which  allusion  has  heretofore  been  made.  It  was  the  result- 
ant of  the  chemical  actions  which  took  place  between  the 
fire-born  rocks  and  the  atmospheric  acids  washed  down  by 
the  primeval  rains,  and  gathered  with  "  the  gathering  to- 
gether of  the  waters." 

Salt  lakes,  or  detached  outliers  of  the  great  ocean,  have 
existed  in  all  ages  since  the  continents  began  to  shed  the 
ocean's  waters  from  their  backs.  In  the  age  just  preceding 
the  last,  an  inland  sea  occupied  the  region  of  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Missouri  River ;  and,  a  little  earlier,  the  same 
sea  extended  a  few  hundred  miles  farther  south,  over  the 
country  of  the  "  Bad  Lands"  of  Dakotah.  In  the  middle 
ages  of  the  world's  history,  the  evaporation  of  salt  lakes  or 
bays  more  or  less  shut  off  from  the  ocean,  and  the  bedding 
of  their  saline  constituents,  was  a  phenomenon  of  so  fre- 
quent occurrence  as  to  constitute  the  most  prominent  feat- 
ure of  an  entire  group  of  strata.  This  group  has  conse- 
quently been  styled  the  "  Saliferous  system."  The  salifer- 
ous  beds  of  this  group  are  extensively  worked  for  rock-salt 
over  a  territory  stretching  along  both  sides  of  the  Carpa- 
thians, embracing  the  mines  of  Wallachia,  Transylvania, 
Galicia,  Upper  Hungary,  Upper  Austria,  Styria,  Salzberg, 
and  the  Tyrol.  In  England  they  are  mined  in  the  counties 
of  Cheshire  and  Worcestershire.  In  the  United  States  we 
find  saliferous  beds  of  the  same  age  extensively  distributed 
over  the  region  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

Descending  in  the  series  of  American  strata,  we  find  the 
Coal-measures  in  certain  regions — or  rather  the  conglomer- 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  ROCK-SALT  AND   GYPSUM.  297 

ate  at  the  bottom  of  the  Coal-measures — to  be  copiously 
saturated  with  brine;  and  in  the  lower  peninsula  of  Mich- 
igan, the  Marshall  sandstones  at  the  bottom  of  the  Carbon- 
iferous system  are  a  reservoir  of  saline  accumulations. 
Still  lower,  the  American  geologist  finds  the  Salina  group 
of  the  Upper  Silurian  system  the  source  of  supplies  of  brine 
throughout  a  wide  extent  of  territory. 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  explain  the  existence  of 
saliferous  and  gypsiferous  deposits  by  reference  to  chem- 
ical reactions  transpiring  subsequently  to  the  solidification 
and  upheaval  of  the  strata ;  but  I  am  led  to  regard  the 
presence  of  sulphuric  acid  and  other  chemical  constituents 
of  gypseous  and  saliferous  formations  as  products  of  the 
decomposition  of  previously  existing  gypsum  and  salt; 
rather  than  the  agents  employed  in  the  present  generation 
of  them. 

The  body  of  water  in  which  the  saliferous  materials  ac- 
cumulated may  have  been  a  bay  or  sea  having  imperfect 
communication  with  the  ocean.  Under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, the  evaporation  from  the  surface  of  the  bay  would 
exceed  the  supply  from  atmospheric  sources,  and  there 
must  arise,  consequently,  a  gradual  influx  of  sea-water  from 
the  ocean.  The  bay- water  would  finally  reach  such  a  state 
of  condensation  as  to  begin  to  precipitate  its  least  soluble 
constituents.  These  would  be  mingled  with  the  ordinary 
sediments  and  debris  of  saline  waters.  This  process  con 
tinuing,  the  condensation  would  reach,  in  succession,  those 
stages  at  which  peroxyd  of  iron,  gypsum,  common  salt,  and 
Epsom  salts  would  be  crystallized  and  deposited  around 
the  shores  and  bottom  of  the  bay,  and  mingled  with  the  ar- 
gillaceous mud  brought  in  by  the  influx  of  surface  waters. 
These  substances  are  all  constituents  of  sea-water.  In 
course  of  time,  the  bottom  of  the  bay  may  have  been  con- 
verted into  dry  land  through  the  course  of  continental  ele- 

N  2 


298  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

vation.  On  the  other  hand,  it  may  have  been  subjected  to 
a  depression  of  such  an  extent  that  the  region  became 
again  the  site  of  the  open  sea;  and  sediments  of  later  date 
were  accumulated  upon  the  top  of  strata  inclosing  rock- 
salt  and  gypsum. 

The  preservation  of  the  saline  constituents  of  a  formation 
thus  originated  must  be  conditioned  on  the  vicissitudes  to 
which  it  was  subsequently  subjected.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  original  conformation  of  the  saliferous  strata  must  have 
been  somewhat  dish-like  or  depressed  in  the  centre,  with 
the  borders  elevated.  In  the  uplift  of  the  continent,  all 
portions  may  have  been  simultaneously  raised,  or  the  for- 
mation may  have  become  decidedly  tilted.  In  the  filtra- 
tion of  surface  waters  through  the  interstices  of  the  strata, 
it  is  obvious  that  any  formation  so  posited  as  to  permit  a 
flow  of  water  through  it,  either  vertically  or  laterally,  must 
have  all  its  soluble  constituents  dissolved  out.  A  vertical 
leaching  may  simply  transfer  these  constituents  to  some 
lower  formation  underlaid  by  an  impervious  floor.  A  lat- 
eral drain  may  discharge  the  soluble,  contents  at  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth,  and  thus,  by  degrees,  restore  them  to  the 
ocean,  their  ancient  home.  Hence  many  strata  now  desti- 
tute of  either  salt  or  gypsum  may  have  embraced  both  at 
the  time  of  their  origin.  In  others  we  witness  these  sub- 
stances— especially  the  gypsum — in  process  of  disappear- 
ance. 

In  case  the  gypseo-saliferous  formation  has  retained  its 
centrally  depressed  conformation  (compare  Fig.  91),  it  is 
apparent  that  the  saline  constituents  held  must  be  unable 
to  escape  by  drainage.  Surface  waters  will  fall  upon  the 
belt  of  outcrop  of  the  formation,  and  may  find  their  way  to 
the  interior  in  sufficient  quantity  to  redissolve  the  soluble 
matters.  This  having  been  done,  however,  the  saturated 
solution  will  charge  the  interstices  of  the  formation,  and 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  ROCK-SALT  AND  GYPSUM.  299 


Fig.  91.  Section  from  East  to  West  across  the  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan. 

1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  etc.  The  several  groups  of  strata  from  the  Coal-measures  to  the 

Lower  Silurian. 


will  suffer  the  diluting  influence  of  surface  waters  only 
around  the  outcropping  borders.  Fresh  water  will  float 
as  a  distinct  stratum  upon  a  stratum  of  strong  brine.  The 
deepest  parts  of  a  saliferous  formation  must  consequently 
contain  the  strongest  brine.  The  place  of  salt  springs  will 
naturally  be  along  the  outcropping  belt  of  the  formation. 
They  are  the  mere  overflow  of  the  basin  caused  by  surface 
rains.  The  region  over  the  most  depressed  portion  of  the 
basin,  and  consequently  over  the  deposit  of  strongest  brine, 
is  likely  to  be  completely  destitute  of  salt  springs.  The 
position  of  the  brine-supply  is  therefore  a  problem  for 
strictly  geological  determination.  It  is  an  induction  from 
the  general  geology  of  the  entire  region.  Superficial  inves- 
tigators have  frequently  instituted  borings  in  the  vicinity 
of  brine  springs.  Inevitably  such  explorations  must  imme- 
diately pass  below  the  source  of  brine-supply,  and  must 
prove  unsuccessful,  unless  they  can  be  extended  to  some 
more  deeply  seated  basin,  whose  outcropping  rim  is  com- 
paratively remote.  The  most  successful  salt  wells  are  those 
which  are  bored  far  from  surface  indications,  in  places 
pointed  out  by  geology  as  located  over  the  central  portion 
of  a  saliferous  basin. 

From  the  conditions  of  the  case,  it  is  almost  a  hydrostat- 
ical  impossibility  that  a  good  brine  well  should  be  a  flow- 
ing well.  The  strong  brine  must  be  pumped  up  from  the 
bottom.     It  may  be  asked  why,  if  the  borders  of  the  basin 


300 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


be  elevated,  will  not  the  brine  be  forced  up  by  hydrostatic 
pressure  ?  I  admit  that  if  the  borders  were  elevated  on, 
all  sides  above  the  place  of  boring,  such  would  be  the  case. 
But  if  the  borders  were  thus  elevated,  we  should  have  an 
area  without  surface  drainage ;  and,  instead  of  being  a 
place  for  salt-making  operations,  it  would  be  the  bed  of  a 
sea  or  lake.  The  supposed  condition  is  therefore  incom- 
patible with  the  hypothesis  of  well-boring.  If  we  assume 
the  existence  of  a  single  gap  in  the  encircling  rim  through 
which  the  surface  waters  may  be  carried  off,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  this  gap  will  also  drain  the  brine-for- 
mation to  the  same  level.  The  sheet  of  brine  will  not, 
therefore,  rise  to  a  higher  level  than  the  place  of  boring; 
and  if  the  elevated  rim  become  charged  with  fresh  waters, 
they  can  be  of  no  avail  for  hydrostatic  pressure,  since  the 
notch  is  an  outlet  through  which  the  pressure  would  find 
relief  at  that  level.  Of  necessity,  then,  the  place  of  boring 
must  be  somewhat  higher  than  the  continuous  rim  of  the 
saliferous  basin,  and  the  brine  can  only  be  brought  to  the 
surface  by  the  pump.  In  penetrating  to  the  deep-seated 
reservoir  of  brine,  other  water-bearing  strata  may  be 
passed  whose  elevation,  at  some  point  more  or  less  remote, 
may  be  such  as  to  originate  an  Artesian  overflow.  In 
working  the  deep  brine,  this  water  must  either  be  stopped 
off,  or  a  closed  tube  must  be  sunk  through  the  midst  of  it 
to  the  brine  formation,  where  it  must  be  closely  packed 
around,  to  prevent  communication  with  the  fresh  waters 
above. 

One  other  consideration  should  be  mentioned.  The  brine 
is  not  always — nor  generally — found  in  the  formation  in 
which  the  salt  was  originally  deposited.  When,  on  the 
elevation  of  the  continent,  meteoric  waters  percolated 
through  the  strata  and  redissolved  the  salt,  the  solution 
would  be  retained  in  the  same  formation  only  on  the  con- 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  ROCK-SALT  AND   GYPSUM.    301 

dition  that  it  was  underlaid  by  an  impervious  floor.  This 
is  generally  the  case  with  the  soluble  matters  of  the  Salina 
group.  If,  however,  the  saliferous  formation  were  under- 
laid by  a  porous  sandstone,  this  would  become  the  reser- 
voir in  which  -the  leachings  of  the  saliferous  formation 
would  be  preserved.  Thus  the  Conglomerate  becomes  in 
Ohio  and  Michigan  the  reservoir  for  the  Coal-measures 
(Fig.  91).  Borings  for  salt  must  necessarily  extend  to  the 
formation  in  which  the  brine  is  accumulated.  This  is  com- 
monly designated  the  salt-rock;  but  it  is  not  necessarily 
the  mother-rock  of  the  brine. 

Such  I  believe  to  be  a  true  account  of  the  natural  his- 
tory of  rock-salt  and  native  brines.  The  phenomena  of 
gypseo-saliferous  formations  seem  incompatible  with  any 
other  explanation.  1.  The  rocks  composing  these  forma- 
tions are  regularly  stratified,  and  furnish  the  usual  indica- 
tions of  sedimentary  origin.  The  beds  of  gypsum  and  of 
rock-salt,  when  existing,  are  entirely  conformable  with  the* 
argillaceous  strata,  and  approximately  coextensive  with 
them.  On  this  theory,  having  ascertained  the  existence  of 
a  brine  formation  on  the  west  side  of  the  State  of  Michigan, 
I  successfully  predicted  its  discovery  on  the  east  side.  The 
extensive  gypsum  beds,  also,  of  the  east  side  were  brought 
to  light  by  a  similar  prediction  based  on  the  same  theory ; 
and  I  have  evidence  that  the  gypsum  formation  of  Grand 
Rapids  and  Alabaster,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  state,  is 
absolutely  continuous  beneath  all  the  intervening  region. 
2.  Gypseo-saliferous  formations  contain  all  the  well-known 
constituents  of  sea-water.  I  do  not  consider  it  likely  that 
these  constituents  would  be  associated  in  the  same  way  in 
both  cases,  unless  the  one  were  the  historical  consequent 
of  the  other.  3.  The  order  of  arrangement  of  these  con- 
stituents is  the  order  of  their  solubility.  When  natural 
brines  are  operated  upon  for  salt,  the  least  soluble  constit- 


302 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


uent,  peroxyd  of  iron,  first  precipitates.  This  is  separated 
in  the  tanks  before  the  brine  is  introduced  into  the  kettles. 
Next,  after  the  boiling  begins,  the  gypsum  is  deposited, 
forming  a  crust  upon  the  inside  of  the  kettle.  Next  in 
order,  common  salt  begins  to  fall  down.  After  most  of 
this  has  been  crystallized  out,  there  still  remain  chloride 
of  calcium  and  sulphate  of  magnesia  (Epsom  salts),  con- 
stituting the  "  bitterns"  of  the  salt  manufacturer.  Further 
evaporation  would  separate  the  Epsom  salts  next  in  order. 
These  several  substances  are  arranged  in  the  same  order 
in  natural  brine-formations.  At  the  bottom  we  find  red 
clays,  colored,  of  course,  by  a  deposite  of  peroxyd  of  iron. 
Next  above  are  clays  containing  gypsum.  In  many  in- 
stances the  sea-water  was  so  clear  that  the  gypsum  was 
deposited  in  pure  crystallized  beds,  from  ten  to  thirty  feet 
in  thickness.  Above  the  gypsum,  in  formations  that  have 
not  been  leached  by  surface  waters,  we  find  the  great  mass 
of  rock-salt.  Still  higher  are  shales  and  limestones,  con- 
taining impressions,  at  least,  of  the  needle-shaped  crystals 
of  Epsom  salts  which  were  once  there,  but  have  been  dis- 
solved out  by  the  waters  which  have  since  saturated  the 
strata.  4.  The  very  discontinuity  of  the  gypsum  beds  in 
certain  formations,  as  the  Salina  group  in  New  York,  is  ac- 
companied by  such  phenomena  as  to  prove  that  the  gyp- 
sum was  once  continuous,  and  is  being  gradually  dissolved 
out.  The  overlying  and  underlying  clayey  beds  assume 
the  place  of  the  dissolved  portions  of  the  gypsum.  The 
remaining  lenticular  masses  of  gypsum  become  thus  in- 
closed by  tortuous  layers  of  clay  and  shale,  which  look  as 
if  they  had  been  primarily  deposited  about  these  masses, 
and  adjusted  to  them.  If  the  overlying  clay  be  most  yield- 
ing, the  vacated  space  is  mostly  filled  by  an  inflection  from 
above.  If  the  underlying  clay  be  most  yielding,  the  inflec- 
tion is  from  below.     Thus  abrupt  loops  of  clay  or  shale 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  RO CK- HAL T  AND  O  YPH UM.    303 

rise  or  sink  into  the  spaces  between  isolated  gypsum-lenti- 
cules.  5.  Gypseo-saliferous  formations  are  generally  of  lo- 
cal extent  in  one  direction  or  in  both,  indicating  that  they 
were  accumulated  in  a  restricted  portion  of  the  ocean. 

The  productive  salt  formations  of  the  United  States  are 
three.  The  Salina  group  is  the  source  of  supply  of  brine 
and  gypsum  to  Onondaga  and  Cayuga  Counties,  New  York. 
The  vast  manufacture  of  the  Empire  State  is  based  upon 
this  supply.  Only  the  northern  rim  of  the  basin  or  forma- 
tion is  known  (Fig.  92).  Its  outcropping  edge  was  deeply 
excavated  by  the  agencies  of  the  ice-period,  and  the  excava- 


Soutl 


Fig.  92.  Longitudinal  section  of  the  Onondaga  Salt  Basin  (from  Superintendent's 
Report  for  1S57),  showing  the  ancient  excavation  of  the  outcrop  of  the  Salina 
group,  now  filled  with  gravel  and  clay,  and  saturated  by  an  exudation  of  brine 
from  the  old  stump  of  the  formation. 

tion  was  filled  with  gravel.  The  overflow  from  the  notched 
rim  of  the  basin  saturates  the  gravel,  and  thus  forms  a  vast 
inland  salt-marsh.  The  strongest  brine  settles  to  the  bot- 
tom of  this  basin,  and  is  reached  by  wells  of  the  ordinary 
kind,  and  pumped  out.  It  seems  inevitable  that  a  supply 
obtained  under  such  geological  circumstances  must  be  lia- 
ble to  rapid  exhaustion.    The  facts  show  that  the  strength 


304  SKETCHES   OF   CREATION. 

of  the  brine  is  gradually  diminishing.  The  same  formation 
affords  brine  and  gypsum  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Grand  Riv- 
er of  Ontario,  and  rock-salt  and  strong  brine  at  Goderich. 
It  is  worked  for  gypsum  in  the  vicinity  of  Sandusky,  Ohio. 
It  underlies  the  whole  of  the  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan 
(Fig.  91)  in  the  form  of  a  vast  basin,  whose  borders  come 
to  the  surface  at  Milwaukee  on  the  west,  Mackinac  on  the 
north,  the  Grand  River  of  Ontario  on  the  east,  and  Sandus- 
ky on  the  southeast.  This  great  salt  basin  has  been  pene- 
trated, under  the  guidance  of  geology,  at  St.  Clair  and  at 
Point  aux  Barques,  and  successful  wells  eleven  hundred 
feet  deep  are  now  in  operation.  A  new  well  is  about  to 
be  put  in  operation  at  Mount  Clemens,  in  Macomb  County, 
and  others  are  in  progress  at  various  points. 

The  next  saliferous  formation,  in  ascending  order,  is  one 
which  is  peculiar  to  the  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan,  and 
has  hence  been  styled  the  "Michigan  Salt  Group."  Its 
geological  position  is  between  the  Marshall  sandstone 
and  the  Mountain  limestone.  It  underlies,  like  a  great 
dish,  nearly  the  whole  of  the  peninsula.  Its  outcropping 
rim  is  marked  by  a  circuit  of  salt  springs.  Filtration  has 
leached  out  most  of  the  brine  into  the  underlying  sand- 
stones. The  gypsum,  however,  mostly  remains  in  the  for- 
mation, and  is  extensively  worked.  The  wells  of  East 
Saginaw  and  Saginaw  City  are  supplied  from  this  forma- 
tion. As  in  the  case  of  the  Salina  basin,  this  one  is  reached 
by  deep  borings  over  the  most  depressed  portion  (Fig.  91). 
These  borings  were  originally  undertaken  as  the  result  of 
a  pure  geological  induction,  and  strong  and  copious  brine 
was  obtained  at  the  depth  of  about  eight  hundred  feet. 
The  first  rock,  even,  was  one  hundred  feet  from  the  sur- 
face, and  the  whole  thickness  of  the  Coal-measures  had  to 
be  crossed.  I  consider  such  successes  ample  vindication 
of  the  utility  of  geological  science.     The  geological  sur- 


S OME THING  ABOUT  RO UK- SALT  AND   O  YPS UM.    305 

vey,  of  which  this  was  but  one  of  the  results,  cost  the  state 
five  thousand  dollars.  The  discovery  of  brine  in  the  Sagi- 
naw Valley  has  added  two  millions  of  dollars  to  the  capi- 
tal of  the  state. 

The  next  conspicuous  salt  formation  in  ascending  order 
is  the  Coal-measures.  The  reader  who  recalls  the  surface 
conditions  under  which  the  coal  was  formed  will  at  once 
perceive  that  there  must  have  been  a  great  concentration 
of  sea-water  in  the  remote  and  somewhat  isolated  lagoons 
and  marshes  in  which  much  of  the  materials  of  the  coal 
formation  were  accumulated.  It  will  be  noticed,  also,  that 
the  associated  strata  are  here,  as  elsewhere,  predominantly 
argillaceous.  As  the  Coal-measures  are  universally  under- 
laid by  the  great  Conglomerate,  this  becomes  the  reservoir 
in  which  the  saline  solutions  from  the  Coal-measures  accu- 
mulate. The  Conglomerate  is  the  "  salt-rock"  of  Ohio,  West 
Virginia,  and  Northeastern  Kentucky.  It  also  underlies  a 
large  central  area  in  the  peninsula  of  Michigan,  and  thus 
constitutes  the  third  great  salt  basin  within  the  limits  of 
that  state,  each  underlying  the  same  central  area.  The 
shallow  wells  at  Bay  City,  Portsmouth,  and  the  Lower 
Saginaw  River  generally,  are  supplied  from  the  Conglom- 
erate. The  deeper  ones  at  the  same  places  are  supplied 
from  the  next  basin  below.  The  gypsum  is  generally  dis- 
solved out  of  the  Coal-measures,  but  in  Western  Iowa  it 
still  exists  in  vast  quantities. 

In  Southern  Kentucky,  and  Northern  and  Central  Ten- 
nessee, brine  is  obtained  by  boring  into  the  "Silicious 
group" — a  local  name  for  certain  members  of  the  Moun- 
tain limestone.  I  will  not  attempt  to  decide  whether  this 
brine  proceeds  from  the  Coal-measures  or  the  False  Coal- 
measures,  or  has  had  an  independent  origin. 

In  Texas,  Colorado,  and  Kansas,  salt  and  gypsum  are 
supplied  in  vast  quantities  from  formations  of  Mesozoic 


306 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


age,  as  in  Europe.  In  some  of  the  Gulf  States,  especially 
Alabama,  tolerably  strong  brine  is  obtained  by  boring  into 
the  lower  argillaceous  and  arenaceous  strata  of  the  Creta- 
ceous system.  On  the  island  of  Petite  Anse,  on  the  coast 
of  Louisiana,  nine  miles  south  of  New  Iberia,  is  a  remark- 
able deposite  of  rock-salt,  till  very  recently  the  only  one 
known  to  exist  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Underneath 
the  soil  of  at  least  one  hundred  and  forty-four  acres  of  this 
island  lies  a  solid  bed  of  pure  rock-salt,  in  which  pits  have 
been  sunk  to  the  depth  of  thirty-eight  feet  without  reach- 
ing the  bottom.  The  mass  of  this  salt  is  below  high  water. 
It  is  overlaid  by  about  nineteen  feet  of  clay,  gravel,  sand, 
and  surface  soil.  Not  less  than  twenty-two  million  pounds 
of  salt  were  removed  from  the  island  during  the  eleven 
months  previous  to  April,  1863.  The  supply  is  probably 
inexhaustible.  This  extraordinary  mass  may  occupy  the 
site  of  an  ancient  bayou,  the  bottom  of  which  has  been  ele- 
vated, while  the  contiguous  shores  have  been  either  eroded 
or  depressed,  so  that  the  land  and  water  have  exchanged 
places.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Goessman,  however,  that  it 
is  "a  secondary  deposite,  resulting  from  the  evaporations 
of  brine-springs  originating  from  beds  of  rock-salt  in  some 
older  geological  formation,  and  not  a  direct  residuum  from 
any  sea."* 

*  Report  of  the  American  Bureau  of  Mines,  1867.  Professor  E.  W. 
Hilgard  has  also  made  an  examination  of  this  deposite.  (See  Amer.  Jour. 
Sci.  and  Arts,  Jan.,  1869,  p.  77.) 


METHOD  IN  THE  GMOWTH  OF  CONTINENTS.  307 


CHAPTER  XXYIL 

METHOD   IN  THE    GROWTH    OF   CONTINENTS. 

TTOW  impressive  the  unity  of  purpose  with  which  Na- 
-■—*-  ture  has  pushed  forward  the  consummation  of  her 
vast  schemes !  Ends  have  been  foreshadowed  through  al- 
most an  eternity  of  years,  while  the  all-directing  Mind  has 
steadily  controlled  the  ministering  forces,  in  the  midst  of 
millions  of  disturbing  agencies,  till  the  premeditated  work 
has  been  accomplished.  We  witness  in  the  plans  of  the 
Infinite  Architect  the  same  intelligent  cohesion  of  parts  as 
in  a  well-laid  human  scheme ;  and  while  the  relations  of 
certain  events  far  transcend  the  scope  of  our  reason,  and 
the  perfection  of  contrivance  is  immeasurably  superior  to 
that  of  human  designs,  we  understand  enough  and  measure 
enough  to  know  that  a  philosophy  which  is  at  once  human 
in  its  method  and  divine  in  its  comprehension  underlies  the 
whole  chain  of  natural  events.  There  is  a  logical  relation- 
ship of  things  established  by  God  and  recognizable  by  man, 
and  the  sequences  of  events  are  ofttimes  so  clear  that  even 
finite  intelligence  is  able  to  penetrate  the  future  and  unveil 
plans  existing  only  in  the  Infinite  conception. 

This  ideal  connection  of  the  parts  of  the  Creator's  uni- 
verse is,  perhaps,  best  traced  among  organized  beings,  but 
I  propose  first  to  point  out  its  existence  in  the  history  of 
inorganic  nature.  The  infinitely  diversified  features  of  the 
earth's  surface  have  been  wrought  out  by  the  operation  of 
a  few  principles  working  through  ages  in  definite  modes. 
We  see  that  certain  rocks  bear  the  evidences  of  their  sedi- 
mentary origin.     We  look  about,  and  find  sedimentary  ac- 


308  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

cumulations  still  forming  and  hardening.  We  look  back, 
and  ascertain  that  the  same  processes,  continued  through 
ages  of  the  past,  have  piled  up  thousands  of  feet  of  rocky 
beds,  in  which  still  slumber  the  mummied  forms  of  the  pri- 
meval world.  We  see  that  certain  rocks  bear  the  marks 
of  fire.  We  plunge  our  hands  into  a  thermal  spring,  and 
gather  intimations  of  internal  heat.  The  molten  eructa- 
tions of  a  volcano  demonstrate  the  continued  existence  of 
melted  rocks.  If  masses  of  igneous  origin  have  cooled 
from  a  state  of  fusion,  who  can  say  that  they  have  not 
cooled  from  that  higher  temperature  at  which  we  know 
that  rocks  and  all  other  things  can  subsist  only  as  vapor  ? 
Do  we  find  rocks  existing  in  that  condition  ?  Yes ;  worlds 
still  exist  as  igneous  vapors.  Here,  then,  we  may  assume 
our  starting-point.  A  world  of  airy  flame,  after  ages  of 
cooling,  gathered  a  liquid  nucleus  at  its  core — a  globe  of 
molten  rock,  wrapped  in  a  glowing  atmosphere  of  all  that 
remained  as  vapor.  Next,  a  fiery  floor  congeals  over  the 
surface  of  the  burning  tide;  the  burning  tide,  as  if  in  rage, 
lashes  it  to  fragments,  and  the  abated  heat  allows  them  to 
be  recemented.  When  the  hotter  fires  had  been  quite  im- 
prisoned in  the  strengthening  crust,  dews  began  to  gather 
in  the  upper  air,  and  streaks  of  haze  barred  out  the  burn- 
ing beams  of  the  lurid  sun.  Rains. fell  upon  the  fervid 
crust,  to  waste  themselves  in  sudden  vapor,  and  return  to 
the  attack  upon  the  crust.  Gleams  of  electricity  lighted 
the  misty  drapery  of  this  geologic  night,  while  the  thun- 
ders of  Nature's  ordnance  echoed  through  the  caverns  of 
the  clouds. 

A  rain  of  acid  waters  at  length  got  the  mastery  of  the 
wrinkled  surface,  and  every  ravine  and  valley  witnessed 
the  race  of  the  rivers  for  the  lowest  levels.  Every  water- 
course bore  onward  its  freight  of  sediment,  the  materials 
of  the  masonry  of  continents.     The  filmy  ocean  swallowed 


METHOD  IN  THE  GROWTH  OF  CONTINENTS.    309 

the  rivulet,  crawled  over  the  hill-top,  and  embraced  the 
world.  The  world,~in  turn,  opened  its  wide  and  rocky- 
jaws  and  swallowed  the  ocean — and  another  ocean  laved 
the  face  of  Nature. 

In  the  progress  of  events,  an  occasional  ridge  of  barren 
granite  lifted  its  back  permanently  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  As  the  liquid  core  contracted,  the  surplusage  of  the 
enveloping  crust  was  absorbed  by  the  wrinkles  already  ex- 
isting, and  thus  the  granite  backs  rose  higher  and  higher. 
As  the  ridges  were  higher  raised,  and  the  valleys  deeper 
sunken,  the  accumulated  oceans  pressed  heavier  and  heav- 
ier against  the  slopes  of  the  rocky  beds,  and  the  gathered 
sediments  of  ages  weighted  the  ocean's  floor  with  a  burden 
which  easily  outweighed  the  crust  which  bridged  the  hills. 
And  thus  it  was  that  the  valleys  were  ever  deeper  sunken, 
and  that  which  was  at  first  an  insignificant  wrinkle  became 
at  last  a  stable  mountain.  From  the  coast  of  Labrador 
southwest  along  the  Laurentian  Hills  we  tread  upon  that 
ancient  summit  which  was  the  first-born  of  Old  Ocean. 
From  the  far  northwest  it  comes  down  to  us  with  the 
same  time-worn  record  written  on  its  weathered  brow, 
while  a  chain  of  noble  lakes  fringes  the  angulated  ridge 
along  its  western  branch,  and  the  eastern  bathes  its  feet  in 
the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  As  the  flowers  of  one 
spring-time  foretell  the  forms  which  will  reappear  when 
spring-time  comes  again,  so  this  ancient  germinal  ridge 
was  but  the  first  blooming  of  a  continent ;  and  when  the 
circle  of  a  geologic  year  was  run,  the  rocky  leaves  of  the 
growing  continent  unfolded  themselves  again  in  their  ap- 
pointed fashion.  Note  the  parallelism  of  that  primeval 
ridge  with  the  present  shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific. 
When  we  know  that  each  successive  revolution  of  the 
globe  has  but  rolled  the  waters  of  the  oceans  farther  to 
the  southeast  and  southwest,  do  we  not  perceive  that  the 


310  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

deep  ocean's  bed  has  ever  been  the  deep  ocean's  bed,  and 
that  the  first  ridge  of  land  was  the  nucleus  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  the  trend  of  its  shores  a  prophecy  of  the  coast- 
lines of  our  day  ? 

Here,  then,  immeasurable  ages  before  the  creation  of 
man — before  even  a  living  thing  had  crawled  in  the  wa- 
ters of  the  sea — Nature  had  distinctly  staked  out  the  birth- 
place of  American  freedom,  and  fenced  in  one  inclosure  the 
vast  area  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific — between 
the  great  lakes  and  the  Mexican  Gulf — and  forebore  to 
raise  a  single  separating  barrier  from  one  extreme  of  the 
empire  of  freedom  to  the  other.  And,  through  all  the 
chances  of  following  revolutions,  she  has  never  erected  an 
Alpine  boundary  to  thwart  her  purpose  in  the  unity  of  the 
continent. 

By  successive  upheavals  belt  after  belt  was  added  to 
the  area  of  the  land.  Even  a  phase  of  continental  history 
which  seems  somewhat  exceptional  was  wrought  out  by 
the  strictest  adherence  to  the  established  methods.  When 
the  time  arrived  for  the  creation  of  land  animals,  the  shrink- 
age of  the  nucleus  had  proceeded  to  a  point  which  sub- 
jected the  crust  to  the  most  enormous  lateral  pressures. 
Uneasy  in  every  attitude,  it  maintained  a  perpetual  oscilla- 
tion— I  say  perpetual,  though  in  movements  so  vast  a  hun- 
dred years  are  as  a  moment.  Vegetation,  which  was  ap- 
pointed the  scavenger  of  the  atmosphere,  gathered  up  its 
freight  of  carbon,  and  a  well-timed  subsidence  of  the  sur- 
face inundated  the  carbonaceous  accumulation,  and  buried 
it  in  mud  and  sand  far  from  the  reach  of  the  destroying 
influence  of  the  atmosphere.  A  hundred  times  the  process 
was  repeated;  and  so  it  happened  that  when  the  atmos- 
phere was  purified,  the  tension  of  the  crust  could  be  no 
longer  borne,  and  one  grand  convulsion  rolled  up  the  Ap- 
palachians in  their  hundred  folds ;  and  there,  nicely  assort- 


METHOD  IN  THE  GROWTH  OF  CONTINENTS.   311 

ed  between  the  rocky  leaves  of  the  mountains,  were  the 
layers  of  carbon,  changed  from  the  poison  to  the  comfort 
of  the  coming  man  ! 

To  recount  the  events  of  the  following  ages  is  to  repeat 
the  story  of  the  past.  By-and-by  the  plastic  hand  of 
Nature  had  moulded  the  continent  to  its  destined  features. 
It  seemed  to  need  but  man  to  be  a  finished  work.  But 
the  Creative  Architect  contemplated  a  higher  finish  than 
human  wisdom  could  have  contrived.  Now  that  the  At- 
lantic and  Pacific  had  completed  those  portions  of  the  con- 
tinent in  their  more  immediate  vicinage,  it  remained  for 
the  smaller  sea  which  surrounds  the  pole  to  develop  by  its 
pressures  the  northern  slope  of  the  land,  and  thus  to  be- 
come the  remote  agent  in  strewing  the  surface  of  the  rocks 
with  an  arable  soil.  The  uplift  of  the  arctic  regions 
brought  on  the  reign  of  ice,  and  wintry  devastation  swept 
over  the  late  verdant  landscapes.  The  downthrow  of  the 
Arctic  highlands  ameliorated  the  climate,  and  Spring 
again  visited  the  icy  fields.  The  movements  of  ice  and 
water  left  the  surface  covered  with  cubic  miles  of  rubbish 
produced  from  the  destruction  of  the  underlying  rocks. 
But  the  entire  continent  was  destined  to  a  new  baptism. 
The  once  forbidden  ocean  was  readmitted  to  career  in  tri- 
umph over  states  that  had  long  ago  been  reclaimed  from 
his  dominion.  Michigan  disappeared  beneath  the  wave, 
and  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  and  Canada. 
The  entire  northern  and  middle  regions  of  the  continent 
sank  down  to  a  level  lower  than  had  been  reached  since 
the  deposition  of  the  coal.  Then,  in  due  time,  began  the 
last  resurgence  of  the  land.  By  degrees  the  finny  waters 
shrunk  back  nearly  to  their  former  lines.  Now  the  river 
channels  were  dug  out ;  and  now  the  Niagara  began  anew 
to  plow  its  stupendous  gorge.  Unknown  ages  passed,  and 
man  assumed  the  sceptre  of  the  earth. 


312 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


*'!£.  yy.  Professor  Jame 


With  what  fidelity  has  geology  deciphered  the  records 
of  this  wonderful  history !  We  marvel  that  so  many  se- 
crets of  the  silent  ages  have  been  found  out.  And  yet  we 
run  over  their  chronicles  as  if  but  the  annals  of  the  last  year. 
How  immense  a  field  for  the  imagination  to  sweep  over ! 
What  amazing  intervals  of  time  to  contemplate !  what 
gigantic  operations  to  trace  !  And  yet  we  behold  from 
the  beginning  the  action  of  the  same  physical  forces  as  are 


METHOD  IN  THE  GROWTH  OF  CONTINENTS.   313 

in  action  to-day.  The  immutable  and  omnipresent  forces 
of  chemistry  first  held  the  elements  under  sway.  Affinity, 
gravitation,  caloric,  electricity,  in  their  varying  operations, 
have  wrought  out  the  diverse  phases  of  the  modern  earth. 
The  plan  of  operations  has  been  equally  uniform.  Igneous 
forces  pressing  upward — oceanic  waters  bearing  downward 
and  outward.  An  incipient  wrinkle,  a  growing  ridge,  an 
upheaved  cordillera.  The  ocean  bed  was  made  for  the 
primeval  waters.  The  place  for  the  continents  was  marked 
out  in  earliest  time,  and  each  successive  event  contributed 
consistently  to  the  final  consummation.  Even  their  out- 
lines were  foreshadowed  in  the  trend  of  those  primal  ridges 
which  made  a  mockery  of  dry  land  before  a  living  thing 
had  appeared  upon  the  earth.  And  when  the  finishing 
touch  was  to  pass  over  the  globe,  we  find  it  effected  by 
the  same  general  agency  as  piled  up  miles  of  strata  and 
raised  granite  summits  to  the  clouds.  An  upheaval,  a  sub- 
mergence, and  another  upheaval  constitute  the  last  three 
chapters  of  the  history.  Who  can  contemplate  this  iden- 
tity of  agencies,  this  persistence  of  plan  and  perfection  of 
results,  without  being  impressed  that  One  Intelligence  has 
planned  the  scheme  and  guided  the  blind  forces  from  the 
beginning  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  long-anticipated 
end? 

O 


314  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

METHOD   IN   THE    HISTORY    OF   LIFE. 

IVTATURE  has  always  issued  her  bulletins.  It  is  a  most 
4-^  interesting  fact  in  the  history  of  the  animal  creation 
that  Nature  advertised  her  plans  in  the  very  earliest  crea- 
tive acts.  In  our  study  of  the  relics  of  the  primeval  ages 
we  do  not  find  the  grand  and  fundamental  purposes  of  In- 
finite Wisdom  unfolding  themselves  by  degrees  as  type 
after  type  of  organic  life  made  its  advent  upon  our  planet. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  full  development  of  Nature's 
schemes  can  only  be  apprehended  in  the  ultimate  results, 
and  that,  with  our  highest  wisdom,  we  are  continually  sur- 
prised at  the  wealth  of  resources  exposed  in  the  unfolding 
of  a  simple  plan.  But  Nature  had  her  plans,  and  these 
were  mature  in  the  very  beginning.  All  possible  contin- 
gencies being  foreseen,  no  amendments  or  modifications 
have  been  necessitated  by  the  growth  of  successive  popu- 
lations and  the  march  of  human  improvement.  The  out- 
lines of  Nature's  grand  methods  were  announced  in  her 
initial  creative  efforts.  It  was  thus  in  the  plan  of  conti- 
nental development ;  it  was  thus  in  the  plan  of  the  animal 
creation.  It  is  only  in  the  infinite  flexibility  of  her  plans, 
and  in  the  inexhaustible  richness  of  their  filling  up,  that 
Nature  transcends  all  the  possibilities  of  human  expecta- 
tion. 

To  the  geologist  no  fact  is  more  familiar  or  more  patent 
than  the  simultaneous  introduction  upon  the  earth  of  three 
of  the  four  fundamental  plans  of  animal  structure  which 
in  the  following  ages  were  to  sport  into  the  infinite  variety 


METHOD  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  LIFE.  315 

of  individual  forms  that  diversify  the  surface  of  the  earth 
at  the  present  day.  Saying,  nothing  about  the  solitary 
JZozoon,  which  stands  inscrutable,  isolated,  and  mysterious 
in  the  remote  ages  of  Eozoic  Time,  like  a  desolate  islet  in 
the  midst  of  a  dark,  and  trackless,  and  tempest-beaten  sea, 
we  find  that  upon  the  very  threshold  of  Paleozoic  Time  rep- 
resentatives of  Radiates,  Molluscs,  and  Articulates  burst 
into  multifarious  being  almost  simultaneously.  So  nearly 
simultaneous  was  the  appearance  of  each  of  these  types, 
that  all  hypothesis  of  their  genealogical  succession  is  ra- 
tionally precluded.  The  doctrine  of  development  finds 
great  discountenance  in  the  very  first  of  the  facts  from 
which  such  a  doctrine  ought  to  derive  its  support.  Later 
in  the  history  of  the  world  Vertebrates  made  their  advent, 
and  thus  were  laid  the  four  corner-stones  on  which  Nature 
has  built  the  superstructure  of  the  animal  creation.  Among 
all  the  multitudes  of  organic  forms  which  have  been  disen- 
tombed from  the  cemeteries  of  the  solid  rocks,  we  have 
found  none  which  were  not  conformed  to  one  of  the  four 
fundamental  types  announced  in  the  beginning.  Here  is 
no  caprice,  here  is  no  chance,  but  the  constancy,  and  or- 
der, and  persistence  of  intelligence,  foresight,  and  fixed  pur- 
pose. 

When  this  grand  procession  of  organic  forms  was  mar- 
shaling for  its  movement  through  time,  the  Supreme  Intel- 
ligence sent  it  forward  in  four  columns,  in  each  of  which 
was  dominant  one  of  the  four  ideas  of  structure.  But  as 
Nature  did  not  range  her  four  columns  in  linear  order,  but 
set  them  abreast  of  each  other,  so  she  was  equally  far  from 
bringing  forward  the  subordinate  divisions  of  each  column 
or  plan  in  any  thing  like  a  fixed  progressive  succession. 
Neither  the  highest  and  most  exalted  forms,  nor  the  low- 
est and  most  humble,  were  ordained  to  take  absolute  pre- 
cedence.    In  the  sub-kingdom  of  Radiates  the  type  was 


316  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

introduced  by  Echinoderms,  Acalephs,  and  Protozoans,  the 
two  highest  and  the  lowest  of  the  four  classes.  True  coral 
animals  perhaps  made  their  appearance  a  little  later.  In 
the  sub-kingdom  of  Molluscs  all  the  classes  stand  abreast 
on  their  first  advent ;  in  that  of  Articulates,  the  two  lower 
classes,  Crustaceans  and  Worms,  preceded  by  a  long  inter- 
val the  Insecteans;  and  in  the  sub-kingdom  of  Vertebrates 
the  classes  followed  each  other  in  regular  gradational  suc- 
cession. Thus  we  see  that,  so  far  as  class-groups  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  impossible  to  reduce  the  order  of  succession  to 
any  general  formula.  How  is  it  with  the  orders  of  the 
respective  classes  ?  Among  Echinoderms,  Cystideans  ap- 
peared before  the  successively  higher  Crinideans,  Starfishes, 
and  Sea-urchins;  among  Acalephs,  the  horny  Graptolites 
appeared  before  the  Coral-builders ;  among  Protozoans,  the 
Sponges,  which  ally  themselves  to  Polypi,  appeared  before 
the  lowest  types — always  disregarding  the  mysterious  Eo- 
zobn.  On  the  whole,  the  order  of  succession  among  the 
groups,  based  upon  relative  rank,  is,  with  Radiates,  from 
below  upward.  With  Molluscs  we  find  the  straight  and 
simple  Orthoceratites  preceding  the  higher  Cephalapods; 
the  arcuate  and  the  entire-mouthed  Gasteropods  leading 
the  higher  spiral  and  flesh-eating  families;  the  asiphonal 
Lamellibranchs  antedating  those  with  more  complete  respi- 
ratory apparatus,  and  the  horny-shelled  Lingula  and  Disci- 
na,  among  Brachiopods,  appearing  before  the  stony-shelled 
and  stony-armed  Spirifers  and  Terebratulas.  Among  the 
Articulate  and  Vertebrate  classes  the  gradational  succes- 
sion of  the  various  orders  is  tolerably  perfect.  But  I  must 
refrain  from  alluding  to  specific  facts.  The  following  grand 
generalization  rests  on  a  broad  survey  of  data  upon  which 
it  would  be  inappropriate,  in  this  place,  to  enter. 

There  is  no  successional  relation  between  the  four  sub- 
kingdoms  of  animals,  nor  even  between  the  several  classes 


METHOD  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  LIFE.  317 

of  the  invertebrate  sub-kingdoms ;  but  among  the  orders 
of  the  several  classes  and  the  classes  of  the  Vertebrates  we 
find  generally  a  progress  from  lower  to  higher  in  the  order 
of  introduction. 

But  there  is  another  principle,  complementary  to  this, 
which  needs  to  be  united  to  it  in  order  to  present  us  with 
a  true  view  of  Nature's  method.  There  has  generally  been 
a  downward  as  well  as  an  upward  unfolding  of  each  type 
from  the  central  forms  in  which  it  was  first  embodied. 
Trilobites,  the  first  representatives  of  the  Crustacean  type, 
belong  indeed  to  the  lowest  group,  but  do  not  lie  at  the 
bottom  of  the  group — the  lower  members,  as  w^ell  as  the 
higher  groups,  coming  into  being  at  subsequent  periods. 
The  earliest  reptiles  were  not  the  lowest  of  the  Amphibi- 
ans, but  Labyrinthodonts,  the  highest  Amphibians;  and 
from  this  starting-point  the  reptilian  type  expanded  both 
upward  and  downward.  Vertebrates  began,  not  with  the 
lowest  fishes,  but  with  a  grade  of  fishes  above  the  mean 
level  of  the  type  in  the  possession  of  several  reptilian  char- 
acteristics. From  here  the  type  rose  still  higher  to  the 
strongly  sauroid  forms,  and  descended  to  the  Teliosts,  or 
typical  fishes,  with  their  aberrant  and  degraded  forms — the 
lamprey  and  the  lancelet.  We  shall  arrive,  therefore,  at 
the  truest  expression  of  the  plan  of  Nature  in  reference  to 
the  succession  of  organic  beings  by  saying  that  each  type 
was  first  introduced  at  a  nodal  point,  from  which  the 
stream  of  development  proceeded  in  both  directions — the 
lowest  forms  in  many  instances  being  reached  only  in  the 
modern  age ;  so  that,  in  some  cases,  after  the  culmination 
of  a  type,  it  has  suffered  a  degeneration  into  the  lower 
grades  already  passed. 

Another  fact  strikes  us  in  a  review  of  the  succession  of 
life  in  past  time.  Life  has  presented  itself  not  so  much  in 
a  series  of  sharply-restricted  organic  forms,  rising  or  de- 


318  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

scending  in  regular  order,  as  in  a  succession  of  dominant 
ideas,  each  in  its  own  age  expressing  itself  in  more  than 
one  organic  type.  Thus,  in  the  reign  of  reptiles,  the  rep- 
tilian idea  was  dominant,  and  we  find  it  invading  the 
structure  of  the  contemporaneous  fishes.  Afterward  the 
avian  or  ornithic  idea  became  dominant,  and  reptiles  were 
endowed  with  wings,  and  even  with  feathers — if  we  may 
credit  the  reptilian  character  of  the  Archaeopteryx  of  Solen- 
hofen.  Still  later,  the  mammalian  idea  became  dominant, 
and  the  forms  of  the  Ichthyosaurus  and  JPlesiosaurus,  but 
more  especially  of  the  terrestrial  Peinosaurs,  indexed  the 
impress  of  that  idea  upon  the  reptilian  class.  Even  in  the 
Age  of  Molluscs,  the  dominant  idea  was  expressed  in  the 
bivalve  nature  of  the  Ostracoid  Crustaceans. 

The  forms  styled  "  synthetic"  or  "  comprehensive"  types 
may  perhaps  be  generalized  under  the  formula  of  dominant 
ideas.  Comprehensive  types  are  those  in  which  certain 
characteristics  of  a  group  are  ingrafted  upon  a  distinct 
though  kindred  stock.  The  Ganoid  fishes  are  of  this  kind, 
since  they  combine  reptilian  with  fish-like  features.  The 
Labyrinthodonts  were  comprehensive  types,  because  they 
were  Amphibians  with  the  scaly  covering  of  Reptiles.  The 
Lepidodendra  of  the  Coal  era  combined  the  characteristics 
of  the  Cryptogams  with  the  foliage  and  general  habits  of 
the  Conifers.  Such  a  synthesis  of  types  seems  to  be  occa- 
sioned by  the  overlapping  of  consecutive  ideas  in  time — a 
penumbra  occurring  while  the  last  dominant  idea  is  passing 
under  the  shadow  of  the  coming  one.  The  Pterosaurs,  or 
flying  reptiles,  were  the  most  marvelous  of  all  comprehen- 
sive or  penumbral  types.  On  the  basis  structure  of  a  rep- 
tile we  find  ingrafted  the  head  and  neck  of  a  bird,  the 
trunk  and  tail  of  a  quadruped,  and  the  leathery  wings  of  a 
bat ;  while,  not  improbably,  their  feet  were  furnished  with 
a  web ;  so  that  these  creatures  were  fitted  for  all  elements, 


METHOD  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  LIFE.  319 

and  showed  in  their  structure  a  synthesis  of  features  be- 
longing to  each  of  the  four  classes  of  vertebrates. 

The  dawn  of  a  new  dominant  idea  in  Nature  is  often 
foreshadowed  by  penunibral  types  of  an  anticipatory  char- 
acter. The  earliest  representatives  of  a  comprehensive 
type  were  generally  prophetic.  Before  reptiles  were  cre- 
ated, hints  of  coming  reptiles  were  dropped  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  fishes,  as  in  the  concavo-convex  vertebrae  of 
the  Ganoids.  The  winged  bird  was  foreshadowed  by  the 
flying  and  feathered  reptiles ;  and  mammals  were  heralded 
by  the  whale-like  and  paddle-bearing  Ichthyosaurs.  What 
but  prophetic  types  were  all  the  first-formed  creatures  be- 
longing to  the  four  grand  categories  of  structure,  from 
which  have  been  developed  the  diversified  beings  of  after 
ages  ?  All  possibilities  of  vertebrate  existence  were  folded 
up  in  the  constitution  of  the  first  fish  which  Omnipotence 
called  into  being.  In  the  organization  of  those  primordial 
Trilobites  which  figure  in  the  vignette  of  animal  history 
were  wrapped  up  in  potentiality  all  the  species  which  cre- 
ative power  has  since  evolved  from  the  articulate  type — 
lobsters,  barnacles,  centipedes,  spiders,  butterflies,  beetles. 
These  forms  were  all  in  full  view  of  the  Intelligence  which 
executed  the  plan  that  involved  them,  and  which,  in  its 
destined  unfolding,  must  set  them  free  upon  the  earth. 

Most  impressive  are  the  facts  which  show  the  ideas  of 
the  far-off*  coming  ages  wandering  in  advance  of  their  time 
among  the  creations  of  an  existing  world,  like  streaks  of 
morning  light  which  herald  the  approaching  sun  through 
all  the  sky,  while  the  world  still  sleeps  under  the  reign  of 
darkness.  It  is  as  if  the  thoughts  of  the  Creator  were 
busied  with  the  plans  of  the  distant  future,  while  his  hands 
are  occupied  with  the  work  of  to-day.  Thus  were  incor- 
porated in  the  organisms  of  one  age  hints  of  the  features 
which  were  to  blossom  and  unfold  in  the  dominant  ideas 


320  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

of  the  following  one.  Thus  grew  into  being  those  "  pro- 
phetic types"  which  show  that  One  Intelligence^^  ordered 
creation — an  intelligence  to  which  the  past  and  the  future 
are  both  present.  Here  are  relations  of  thought  which  pro- 
claim in  the  ears  of  all  men  that  chance  has  never  swayed 
the  sceptre  of  the  world,  and  that  unthinking  and  blind 
material  force  has  only  been  the  servant  of  an  Intelligent 
Will. 

Hardly  less  interesting  are  the  phenomena  of  retrospect- 
ive types.  These  lie  on  the  vanishing  side  of  the  eclipse. 
They  are  the  last  shadows  cast  by  a  type  whose  central 
passage  was  ages  ago.  The  "garpike"  or  "  billfish"  of  our 
Western  waters  is  a  notable  example  of  retrospective 
types.  Some  geological  cycles  since,  the  garpikes  were  the 
monarch-occupants  of  the  waters  of  the  earth.  Helmeted 
and  mailed  in  impenetrable  armor,  they  were  secure  from 
the  attacks  of  the  most  formidable  foes.  With  jaws  armed 
with  triple  rows  of  sharp  and  conical  teeth,  and  endowed 
with  the  power  of  darting  like  an  arrow  through  the  water,  .- 
there  was  no  contemporary  too  swift  to  capture  or  too 
powerful  to  destroy.  The  meridian  of  this  dynasty  was  in 
the  Mesozoic  ages.  From  that  time  its  power  has  contin- 
ued to  wane ;  and  in  the  present  age,  so  far  as  shown  by 
the  published  records  of  science,  only  the  Polypterus  of  the 
Nile  and  Senegal  Rivers,  and  the  lepidosteus  of  North 
American  waters,  survive  to  represent  the  prestige,  and 
glory,  and  prowess  of  a  reign  which  was  once  inexorable 
and  universal.  We  may  look  upon  the  "  billfish"  of  our 
rivers  and  lakes  with  a  veneration  infinitely  more  exalted 
than  any  belonging  to  the  survivors  of  the  decaying  dynas- 
ties of  human  history.  Here  are  the  relics  of  empires  in 
which  the  Almighty  Will  has  wrought  its  own  purposes ; 
on  the  other  hand  are  the  ruins  of  fabrics  built  and  de- 
fended at  the  cost  of  human  liberty  and  human  blood,  in 


METHOD  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  LIFE.  321 

which  human  license  for  a  time  has  been  suffered  to  wrestle 
against  the  Almighty  Will. 

Equally  profound  is  the  lesson  taught  by  the  Pentacrinus 
of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  for  it  stands  there  the  sole  survivor 
of  the  Crinoids  of  the  Paleozoic  world.  *A  delicate  stony 
stem,  affixed  to  the  submarine  soil,  bears  upon  its  summit 
a  symmetrical  cup  or  body,  around  the  margin  of  which 
are  supported  the  five  stony  arms  which  ramify  into  scores 
of  fingers.  The  whole  structure  is  composed  of  many  thou- 
sands of  little  stony  pieces,  many  of  them  handsomely  sculp- 
tured, and  all  fitted  together  with  mathematical  precision. 
Dr.  Buckland  demonstrated  that  the  number  of  separate 
pieces  in  a  fossil  Pentacrinus  was  more  than  150,000,  while 
M.  de  Koninck  calculated  that  an  adult  specimen  of  the 
same  species  {Pentacrinus  Briareus)  was  composed  of  not 
less  than  615,000  separate  pieces.  Strange  that  a  type  so 
remarkable  in  its  characteristics  should  persist,  in  a  single 
representative,  so  many  ages  after  the  period  to  which  it 
was  assigned,  to  play  its  part  in  the  wonderful  drama  of 
life! 

The  Trilobites  have  long  since  ceased  to  exist ;  but  afar 
off,  in  the  Antarctic,  science  has  brought  to  light  a  curious 
Crustacean  (Glyptonotus  Antarcticus),  which  strongly  re- 
calls the  extinct  form  of  the  Trilobite,  as  if  Nature  fondly 
cherished  the  reminiscences  of  her  youth.  The  Araucaria 
imbricata  of  Chili  is,  in  like  manner,  a  souvenir  of  the  Con- 
ifers of  the  Coal  Period,  as  the  Chinese  Salisburia  is  of  its 
Sigillarians  and  Ferns. 

Thus,  on  a  review  of  the  history  of  organic  life,  we  are 
enabled  to  draw  forth  its  manifold  lessons.  We  learn  that 
the  marshaling  of  its  forms  is  not  in  such  an  order  as  to 
justify  the  fascinating  doctrine  of  genealogical  succession, 
as  taught  by  De  Maillet,  St.  Hilaire,  Lamarck,  Darwin, 
Spencer,  and  others.     Still,  we  learn  that  order  has  exist- 

02 


322 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


ed,  and  that  Nature's  history  may  be  expressed  in  formu- 
las. We  recognize  a  bond  of  thought  running  through 
the  whole  length  of  creation,  and  feel  the  assurance  that  a 
Higher  Power  than  physical  forces  has  presided  over  the 
evolution  of  the  material  world. 


Fig.  94.  Glyptonotus  Antarcticus,  a  reminiscence  of  the  Trilobites. 


WORLD-THOUGHTS.  323 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

WORLD-THOUGHTS. 

ET  us  trace  these  world-thoughts  further.     We  shall 
-"  find  the  same  story  thrice-recorded. 

Every  body  knows  that  the  domestic  dog  outranks  the 
ox,  while  he  is  himself  outranked  by  the  chimpanzee.  Still 
lower  than  the  ox  in  rank  is  that  aquatic  mammal,  the 
whale,  which  to  every  judgment  seems  just  on  the  sepa- 
rating line  between  mammals  and  fishes,  while  higher  than 
the  chimpanzee,  both  in  his  organization  and  his  intelli- 
gence, is  the  being,  Man.  These  several  forms  belong  all 
to  the  class  of  mammals,  and  represent  so  many  orders  of 
that  class.  Each  class  of  the  animal  kingdom  is  composed 
of  different  grades  of  creatures,  which  mark  the  different 
orders  of  the  class.  The  criteria  by  which  we  determine 
relative  rank  amongst  animals  are  various.  Within  the 
limits  of  a  class,  superiority  of  rank  is  denoted  by  aerial 
respiration,  and  inferiority  by  aquatic  respiration.  Corre- 
spondingly, merely  aquatic  habits,  even  with  aerial  respi- 
ration, as  in  whales,  show  that  the  affinities  are  downward. 
Even  the  endowment  of  wings  marks  a  grade  below  those 
forms  fitted  to  travel  on  the  surface  of  the  solid  earth. 
Then,  again,  a  multiplication  of  similar  parts  denotes  infe- 
riority, as  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  some  of  the  mar- 
supial quadrupeds  of  Australia  possess  fifty-four  teeth,  and 
some  dolphins  one  hundred  and  ninety,  while  the  typical 
number  for  mammals  is  forty-four.  Thus,  also,  insects  have 
but  six  legs,  while  their  inferiors,  the  spiders,  have  eight, 
and  myriapods  an  indefinite  number.     Inferiority  is  equal- 


324 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


ly  diagnosed  by  an  extension  of  the  abdominal  or  caudal 
region,  or  by  a  conversion  of  some  of  the  parts  about  the 
head  to  uses  which  serve  the  vegetative  rather  than  the 
animal  functions.  Thus  the  elongated  serpent  is  inferior 
to  the  abbreviated  turtle ;  and,  in  another  class,  the  elon- 
gated lobster  ranks  below  the  shortened  crab. 

In  each  class  forms  may  be  selected  as  ordinal  types.  In 
the  class  of  mammals  we  have  man,  the  monkey,  the  bat,  the 
lion,  the  deer,  the  hippopotamus,  and  the  whale,  as  the  ex- 
pression of  so  many  different  ideas  in  a  graduated  series. 
In  another  class  we  have  crabs,  lobsters,  trilobites,  lerneans, 
and  wheel-animalcules  as  a  portion  of  a  graduated  series  of 
forms  expressed  under  the  articulated  type.  The  orders 
of  each  class  may  be  regarded  as  the  embodiments  of  a  se- 
ries of  divine  conceptions.  They  constitute  a  distinct  suc- 
cession of  ideas  recognizable  in  a  fixed  order  as  the  mind 
glances  over  the  series  of  organic  beings. 

Turn  now  to  those  wonderful  and  mysterious  evolutions 
through  which  every  animal  goes  in  passing  from  the  con- 
dition of  an  egg  to  that  of  an  adult  being.  We  find  here 
expressed  the  same  successions  of  ideas  as  in  the  grada- 
tions of  adult  animals.  I  have  said  that  aquatic  forms 
stand  below  terrestrial — the  aquatic  fishes  below  the  ter- 
restrial reptiles.  Now  the  fish-like  tadpole  is  the  embry- 
onic condition  of  the  frog,  the  toad,  and  the  salamander. 
In  the  development-history  of  these  animals,  then,  the  idea 
of  a  swimmer  and  a  water-breather  is  antecedent  to  that 
of  a  land-dweller  and  air-breather,  just  as  the  fish  and  the 
whale  come  before  the  air-breathing  mammal  in  the  ascend- 
ing grades  of  being.  But  what  is  most  astonishing  is  the 
fact  that  all  vertebrates,  even  man  himself,  exhibit  at  one 
stage  of  their  existence  a  structural  adaptation  for  the  low 
and  fish-like  mode  of  respiration,  and  by  degrees  assume 
the  characteristics  of  higher  and  higher  orders  till  their 


WORLD-THOUGHTS.  325 

destined  elevation  is  reached,  when  further  development  is 
arrested.  It  is  now  a  favorite  doctrine  among  some  era- 
bryologists  that  every  higher  type,  in  the  progress  of  its 
development,  passes  in  succession  through  phases  which 
represent  the  fixed  conditions  of  the  several  orders  below 
it.  The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation"  has  conse- 
quently undertaken  to  show  at  what  period  of  his  exist- 
ence the  embryo  man  corresponds  to  the  fish — at  what  to 
the  salamander — at  what  to  the  tortoise,  t^ie  bird,  the 
whale,  the  quadruped,  and  the  ape.  Indeed,  he  goes  a 
step  farther,  and  insinuates  that  the  rank  to  which  any 
embryo  is  developed  is  limited  only  by  the  term  of  incu- 
bation or  gestation,  so  that  by  prolonging  this  term  an 
offspring  of  higher  grade  than  the  parents  may  result. 
There  is  danger  of  pushing  analogies  too  far.  Similar  se- 
quents  within  certain  limits  do  not  warrant  us  in  spurning 
all  limits.  Analogies  are  not  to  be  taken  for  dependent 
relations.  They  may,  indeed,  express  identical  plan — iden- 
tical intelligence — but  they  are  liable  to  fail  at  any  point. 
Notwithstanding,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Nature  fur- 
nishes us  in  this  case  with  some  very  suggestive  facts. 
Unlike  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  however,  I  shall  em- 
ploy these  facts  to  show  that  intelligence  presides  over 
creation,  instead  of  proving  its  absence. 

Again,  worms  are  lower  in  rank  than  insects.  The  worm- 
like  grub  which  cuts  off  our  young  corn,  and  the  slugs 
which  eat  our  cherry  and  rose  leaves,  are  but  the  embryos 
of  insects.  Here,  also,  the  embryo  of  a  higher  type  appears 
under  the  similitude  of  the  adult  form  of  a  lower  type. 
Such  illustrations  could  be  adduced  at  great  length.  We 
arrive,  then,  at  the  conclusion  that  Nature,  in  realizing  the 
succession  of  phases  through  which  an  embryo  is  made  to 
pass,  gives  expression  to  the  same  succession  of  ideas  as  we 
recognize  in  the  gradations  of  adult  animal  forms, 


326  SKETCHES  OF  CUE  AT  I  OK 

Next,  let  us  recur  to  the  nature  of  the  geological  succes- 
sion of  organic  types.  Every  tyro  in  geological  science 
has  learned  that  we  have  here,  viewed  as  a  whole,  a  grad- 
ually ascending  succession  of  forms.  Among  other  se- 
quences, we  find  the  fish  followed  in  time  by  the  batrachi- 
an,  which  in  its  embryo  state  is  fish-like,  and  in  its  adult 
state  is  reptile-like.  The  batrachian  was  followed  by  the 
strictly  air-breathing  reptile,  in  which  the  ventricle  is  not 
separated  bjt  a  partition — a  condition  existing  in  the  heart 
of  the  embryo  mammal.  Finally,  reptiles  were  succeeded 
by  quadrupeds  and  man. 

Again,  the  earliest  crustaceans  were  Trilobites,  followed 
by  Phyllopods.  These  were  followed  by  long-bodied  lob- 
sters (Macrourans),  and  these,  in  turn,  by  the  crabs  (Brachy- 
urans).  Now  this  succession  of  forms  is  the  same  as  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  embryonic  history  of  the  highest  form  of 
crustacean. 

Still,  again,,  fishes  with  cartilaginous  skeletons  and  (so- 
called)  heterocercal — unequally-lobed — tails  predominated 
in  the  earlier  periods,  while  our  existing  waters  are  ten- 
anted by  fishes  with  bony  skeletons  and  (so-called)  homo- 
cereal  tails.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  order  of  succes- 
sion is  represented  by  the  embryonic  stages  of  the  common 
whitefish  of  Europe,  and  corresponds  also  to  the  discrim- 
inations of  rank  which  are  recognized  in  the  class  of  fishes. 

Coral  animals  furnish  us  with  another  beautiful  illustra- 
tion of  these  harmonies.  It  has  been  shown  by  Agassiz, 
who  has  enjoyed  remarkable  facilities  for  the  study  of  all 
classes  of  animals,  that  the  polyps,  structurally  considered, 
present  a  gradation  which  is  expressed,  in  ascending  order, 
by  the  following  arrangement  of  groups :  Actinice,  Fun- 
gidce,  Astrceans,  Porites,  Madrepores,  Haley onoids.  From 
the  Actinice,  whose  soft  bodies  and  indefinite  multiplication 
of  tentacles  mark  them  lowest  in  the  scale,  to  the  Haley- 


WORLD-THOUGHTS.  327 

onoids,  which  have  but  eight  tentacles,  there  exists  a  regu- 
lar gradation  of  complication  which  in  this  place  can  only 
be  announced.  It  is  a  fact  of  extreme  interest,  however, 
that  the  geological  succession  of  coral  animals,  so  far  as  we 
can  judge,  has  been  coincident  with  this  structural  grada- 
tion. Of  fossil  Actinice  we  can  allege  nothing,  since,  hav- 
ing soft  bodies,  no  relics  of  them  could  have  been  preserved 
if  they  existed  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world's  history. 
But  as  to  the  other  groups,  we  find  the  Fungidce  running 
through  the  Silurian,  Devonian,  and  Carboniferous  ages, 
while  the  Pontes  and  Astrceans  bedecked  the  submarine 
parterres  of  Mesozoic  Time,  and  the  Madrepores  united 
with  them  to  adorn  the  Tertiary  seas,  and  the  Halcyonoids 
belong  to  the  latest  times. 

A  farther  extraordinary  coincidence  is  furnished  by  these 
coral  animals.  It  has  been  shown  by  Agassiz,  who  exam- 
ined the  Florida  Reef  under  the  auspices  of  the  United 
States  Coast  Survey,  that  the  true  reef-building  polyps  ar- 
range themselves  along  the  reef  in  the  order  of  their  rank 
and  successive  introduction  upon  the  earth.  The  Actinice 
do  not  appear  on  the  reef  for  the  same  reason  that  they  do 
not  figure  in  the  records  of  geology.  They  are  soft-bodied 
animals,  and  never  secrete  coral.  The  Fungidce,  further- 
more, are  not  compound  animals  like  the  reef-builders,  and 
are  not  confined  to  any  particular  depth  in  the  sea.  But 
when  we  come  to  the  reel-making  polyps,  we  find  the  true 
Astrceans  at  the  bottom,  followed  by  the  Meandrines,  a 
higher  section  of  the  Astrceans.  Next,  in  ascending  along 
the  reef  we  encounter  the  architecture  of  the  Porites,  the 
Madrepores,  and  the  Halcyonoids  in  due  succession,  and 
presenting  a  series  of  conceptions  identical  with  that  found 
in  the  structural  gradation  of  polypi,  and  again  in  the  or- 
der of  their  geological  appearance. 

What  signify  now  these  repetitions  of  identical  succes* 


328  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

sions  of  ideas  ?  In  their  structural  rank,  in  their  embry- 
onic development,  in  their  geological  sequence,  and  even,  in 
one  case,  in  their  relative  position  in  depth,  the  groups  of 
the  animal  kingdom  give  utterance  to  the  same  intelligible 
sentences.  This  is  not  the  utterance  of  chance ;  it  is  the 
language  of  One  Intelligence  presiding  over  the  evolutions 
of  the  organic  world  through  all  ages  and  in  all  the  condi- 
tions of  its  existence. 

Other  world-harmonies  crowd  upon  our  attention.  Iden- 
tical thoughts  are  written  upon  the  flowers  and  the  stars. 

Every  one  has  observed  that  the  leaves  of  some  plants 
*stand  in  pairs  opposite  each  other,  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
stem.  In  other  plants  the  leaves  are  scattered  over  the 
stem.  In  this  case  they  are  not  promiscuously  placed,  for, 
on  careful  observation,  we  find  them  disposed  in  the  most 
regular  manner.  Commencing  with  any  given  leaf,  for  in- 
stance, we  shall  find  the  next  leaf  above  this  one  third  of 
the  distance  around  the  stem ;  the  next,  another  third ;  and 
the  next  another  third,  so  as  to  stand  exactly  over  the  first. 
The  series  is,  therefore,  arranged  in  a  spiral,  which  may  be 
designated  by  the  fraction  ^.  Taking  another  plant,  we 
shall  find  the  next  leaf  above  any  given  one  two  fifths  of 
the  distance  around  the  stem ;  the  next  will  be  four  fifths ; 
the  next,  six  fifths,  and  so  on,  each  leaf  moving  two  fifths 
of  the  circumference  farther  around  the  stem.  In  this  case 
the  fifth  leaf  stands  over  the  first,  and  this  superposition  is 
attained  after  winding  twice  around  the  stem.  Here  we 
have  an  order  of  arrangement,  or  a  spiral,  which  may  be 
represented  by  the  fraction  -§.  In  precisely  the  same  way 
we  discover  in  other  plants  spirals  which  may  be  expressed 
by  the  fractions  f ,  f^-,  -^j-,  etc.  If,  in  the  case  of  opposite 
leaves,  first  mentioned,  we  conceive  that  two  spirals  start 
from  the  same  level  on  opposite  sides  of  the  stem,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  each  successive  leaf  in  each  spiral  is  separated 


WOULD-  THO  UGHTS.  329 

from  its  predecessor  by  an  interval  or  angular  distance 
equal  to  one  half  the  circumference  of  the  stem.  We  have 
here,  then,  a  spiral  expressed  by  the  fraction  \.  The  com- 
plete series  of  fractions,  therefore,  is  the  following :  -J-,  ^,  -§, 
f,  -&,  -jy,  etc.  Now  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  val- 
ues are  obtained  by  actual  observation,  and  that  there  are 
plants  whose  leaf-arrangements  are  known  to  correspond 
to  each  of  these  fractions  severally,  as  well  as  others  in 
the  series  farther  continued.  But  notice  the  relation  which 
subsists  between  the  successive  fractions  in  the  series. 
Each  numerator  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  two  preceding 
numerators,  and  each  denominator  to  the  sum  of  the  two 
preceding  denominators.  Knowing  this  law,  we  may  con- 
tinue the  series  to  any  extent ;  and  it  has  been  so  contin- 
ued, and  fractions  obtained  to  which  plants  have  subse- 
quently been  found  to  correspond,  though  we  hardly  know 
how  at  present  to  interpret  the  unrealized  possibilities  in- 
dicated by  the  higher  terms  of  the  series.  Is  all  this  the 
result  of  chance?  Is  it  not  rather  mathematics,  law,  intel- 
ligence ? 

We  turn  now  our  attention  to  the  "  infinite  meadows  of 
heaven,"  where 

1 'Blossom  the  lovely  stars,  the  forget-me-nots  of  the  angels." 

Neptune,  the  remotest  planet,  revolves  about  the  sun  in 
60,000  days  —  speaking  in  round  numbers — Uranus,  the 
next,  in  30,000  days,  which  is  one  half  the  preceding  num- 
ber; Saturn,  the  next,  in  10,000  days,  which  is  one  third 
the  period  of  Uranus ;  Jupiter  revolves  in  4000  days,  which 
is  two  fifths  of  the  period  of  Saturn.  And  so  we  go  on 
through  the  system,  and  find  the  law  expressing  the  rela- 
tions of  the  revolutions  of  the  planets  identical  with  that 
which  determines  the  arrangement  of  the  leaves  upon  the 
humble  stem  of  a  plant. 


330 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


A  little  difficulty  was  at  first  experienced  in  applying 
the  law  to  the  group  of  asteroids ;  but  this  difficulty  no 
longer  exists,  and  we  now  know  this  wonderful  law  to  be 
so  exact  and  uniform  in  its  application  that,  before  the  dis- 
covery of  the  planet  Neptune,  the  botanist  in  his  garden 
could  have  predicted  its  existence  and  its  place  in  the 
heavens  with  greater  precision  than  the  French  astronomer 
in  his  observatory.  Moreover,  an  .examination  of  this  se- 
ries of  fractions  renders  it  impossible  that  any  planet  should 
exist  exterior  to  Neptune,  as  his  periodic  revolution  corre- 
sponds to  the  beginning  of  the  series ;  though  an  indefinite 
number  of  planets  may  exist  within  the  orbit  of  Mercury, 
inasmuch  as  the  planets  lying  in  that  direction  correspond 
to  the  indefinite  continuation  of  the  series.  This  corre- 
spondence also  harmonizes  beautifully  with  the  cosmical 
theory  of  La  Place  and  Sir  William  Herschel,  which  has 
been  explained  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  this  work.  As- 
tronomers will  therefore  take  notice,  and  not  be  found 
planet-hunting  in  the  deserts  of  space  beyond  the  orbit  of 
Neptune.  In  the  other  direction,  the  future  discovery  of 
an  intra-mercurial  planet  is  both  possible  and  probable. 
Certain  it  is  that  presumption  sides  with  Lescarbault  in  his 
claim  to  such  a  discovery. 

Who  shall  explain  what  mysterious  virtue  belongs  to 
the  succession  of  values  furnished  by  the  leaf-arrangements 
of  the  plant,  that  exactly  the  same  succession  of  values 
should  be  inscribed  upon  its  humble  stem  and  entered 
among  the  ordinations  of  planetary  systems  ?  How  many 
millions  of  chances  against  the  supposition  of  a  blind  coin- 
cidence through  a  series  of  terms  so  extended  !  Premedi- 
tated atheism  alone  could  fail  to  read  the  sentiment  so 
written  at  once  in  the  soft  bloom  of  the  rose  and  the  super- 
nal light  of  the  stars — "  These  are  the  works  of  one  Omni- 
present Intelligence." 


ANTICIPATIONS  OF  MAN  IN  NATURE.  331 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

ANTICIPATIONS    OF   MAN   IN   NATURE. 

f  I  MAKING  advantage  of  a  midsummer  holiday,  suppose 
-■-  we  visit  the  country  seat  of  a  friend  possessed  of  am- 
ple wealth  and  cultivated  tastes.  Arriving  at  the  prem- 
ises, we  find  the  owner  called  unexpectedly  to  the  city,  but 
the  porter,  in  obedience  to  the  instructions  of  the  proprie- 
tor, proffers  us  a  greeting,  and  bids  us  in  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  spacious  park.  We  find  the  grounds  laid  out  and 
adorned  under  the  guidance  of  an  educated  and  generous 
taste.  The  graveled  carriage-road  winds  under  the  leafy 
umbrage  of  the  ancient  oaks,  or  creeps  along  beneath  the 
dark  shadows  of  a  frowning  cliff;  and  ever  and  anon  a 
sunny  opening  in  the  overhanging  foliage  lets  in  the  gold- 
en light  upon  the  quiet-loving  Rhododendron  and  Azalea. 
Here  a  modest  footpath  saunters  down  a  mimic  vale,  and 
leads  us,  worn  and  weary,  to  a  rustic  summer-house  all 
overarched  with  honey -breathing  Loniceras  intertwined 
with  the  scandent  Cobea  and  woodland-loving  Bignonia. 
Here  are  seats  provided  for  the  languid  visitor ;  and  from 
the  roots  of  the  thirsty  beech,  whose  overreaching  branches 
rib  the  leafy  arch,  bursts  forth  a  laughing  fountain,  while  a 
goblet  standing  by  seems  to  say,  "  Here  the  visitor  will  be 
thirsty  and  warm,  and  will  eagerly  refresh  himself  at  the 
cooling  spring."  The  proprietor  of  the  grounds,  though 
not  here  in  his  visible  presence,  has  left  here  the  evidences 
of  his  thoughtfulness  and  expectation  of  a  wearied  visitor. 
Then  for  the  first  time  we  spy  what  is  equally  welcome 
with  the  cool  fountain — a  basket  of  ripe  and  luscious  fruit, 


332  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

revealing  itself,  like  Heaven's  blessings,  just  at  the  moment 
when  nothing  could  be  more  desired.  How  well  the  owner 
of  the  premises  knows  how  to  minister  to  the  wants  and 
pleasures  of  his  guests  !  Refreshed,  we  wander  on  through 
a  darkly-shaded  copse,  when  a  sudden  elbow  in  the  foot- 
path brings  us  to  the  rock-built  doorway  of  a  rustic  grotto. 
The  cool  lintels  are  hung  with  brown  and  emerald  fringes 
of  dew-dripping  mosses,  and  the  leaf-strewn  portal  of  the 
dusky  hall  reminds  us  of  the  cave  of  the  Cumaean  Sibyl. 
The  desire  to  enter  this  enchanted  grotto  has  been  foreseen 
by  the  care  which  provided  a  flight  of  half  a  dozen  steps, 
down  which  we  descend  to  the  damp,  chill  floor  of  the  Sib- 
ylline abode.  The  long,  dim  hall  before  us  fades  into  in- 
distinctness in  the  distance,  like  the  line  of  memories  re- 
ceding toward  childhood's  years;  and  just  as  our  timid 
steps  are  about  to  be  reversed,  we  espy  some  matches  and 
a  taper  resting  on  a  shelf  of  rock,  and,  with  the  light  so 
opportunely  provided,  explore  the  length  of  the  charming 
little  cavern. 

Emerging  from  our  subterranean  exploitation,  we  visit, 
in  succession,  all  the  remaining  nooks  and  surprises  of 
the  well-plotted  grounds,  and  find  that  every  where  the 
thoughtfulness  of  the  proprietor  has  preceded  us,  and  ush- 
ered our  coming  with  the  most  intelligent  preparation. 
Not  the  least  admirable  of  the  arrangements  of  his  shrewd 
forecasting  is  his  occasional  combination  of  geometrical  fig- 
ures cut  in  the  turf  of  a  growing  grass-plot,  or  traced  in 
the  airy  edgings  of  the  most  exquisite  flower-beds,  them- 
selves the  achievements  of  geometrical  skill,  and  adapted 
specially  to  please  the  mind  and  fancy  trained  in  mathe- 
matical forms.  The  work  itself  bespeaks  a  skillful  mind, 
and  equally  proclaims  an  expectation  of  educated  guests. 
This  lavishment  of  learned  conceptions  is  not  the  mere 
gamboling  of  genius  for  its  own  amusement.     What  we 


ANTICIPATIONS  OF  MAN  IN  NATURE.  333 

see,  and  enjoy,  and  comprehend  declares  in  plainest  lan- 
guage not  only  that  the  contriver  of  these  grounds  pos- 
sessed superior  intelligence,  but  that  he  expected  intelli- 
gent guests  to  visit,  admire,  and  enjoy  them. 

This  admirably  plotted  park  is  the  domain  of  Nature. 
These  dark,  umbrageous  shades  and  quiet  dells  are  hers. 
These  winding  highways  and  meandering  footpaths  are  her 
navigable  streams,  and  lakes,  and  ocean  tides.  The  rho- 
dodendron and  azalea  were  first  planted  by  the  hand  of 
Nature,  and  her  fingers  taught  the  honeysuckle  to  climb 
the  rustic  trellis  of  oaken  boughs.  Her  providence  drew 
forth  the  crystal  fountain  beneath  the  beechen  shade,  and 
her  foresight  laid  by  the  store  of  coal  with  which  we  warm 
and  light  our  dwelliugs. 

To  be  more  specific,  let  the  reader  imagine  that  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  had  been  a  scene  of  never-ending  quiet. 
Suppose  a  fear  of  inflicting  animal  suffering  had  laid  its 
restraining  hand  on  the  volcano  and  the  earthquake ;  sup- 
pose the  rocks  had  not  been  plowed  up,  and  the  deep  sub- 
soil of  the  earth's  crust  laid  over  in  mountain  ridges.  I  do 
not  ask  whether,  in  the  midst  of  scenes  of  such  monotony, 
the  occasion  could  ever  have  arrived  for  the  deposition  of 
the  coal.  We  will  assume  that  it  would.  I  do  not  ask 
whether,  without  eruptions  and  terrestrial  distresses,  the 
precious  and  the  useful  metals  would  ever  have  been  re- 
duced from  their  ores ;  we  may  assume  that  they  would. 
But  where  would  lie  our  coal  ?  Buried  ten  thousand  feet 
from  view,  man  would  never  have  learned  of  its  existence, 
much  less  would  he  have  known  how  to  raise  it  to  the  sur- 
face. See  the  provision  of  Nature  in  breaking  up  the  coal- 
bearing  strata  and  tilting  them  on  edge,  as  much  as  to  say, 
"  Lo  !  here  is  your  desire ;  search  not  in  vain ;  dig,  and  be 
satisfied  with  warmth ;  drive  forth  the  hidden  energy  of 
the  abundant  water,  and  bid  the  servants  furnished  to  your 


334  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

hands  execute  all  the  behests  of  your  convenience."  Had 
chance  formed  the  beds  of  coal  under  such  a  concurrence 
of  auspicious  and  beneficent  conditions,  chance  would  not 
have  brought  it  to  our  doors ;  chance  would  not  have  res- 
cued it  from  burial  beneath  the  sediments  of  a  thousand 
following  ages ;  chance  would  not  have  laid  by  in  the  same 
beds  the  ores  of  iron  which  the  coal  is  fitted  to  reduce ; 
chance  would  not  have  stored  in  the  same  relation  the  beds 
of  limestone,  to  be  used  as  a  flux  in  the  reduction  of  the 
iron  ores  by  means  of  the  mineral  coal.  See  what  provi- 
dent Nature  has  done  with  other  metals  !  Was  it  accident 
that  enriched  the  upper  peninsula  of  Michigan  with  her 
wealth  of  native  copper?  Or  has  there  been  in  existence 
upon  our  earth  any  other  being  than  man  to  whom  these 
riches  possessed  the  least  utility  or  interest  ?  The  ores  of 
copper  lie  buried  a  mile  beneath  the  sandstones  of  the 
"  Pictured  Rocks."  The  sediments  of  unknown  cycles  of 
years  were  gathered  upon  the  beds  of  valuable  ores.  At 
length,  while  the  world  was  preparing  for  man,  a  fiery  out- 
burst threw  the  deep-buried  treasures  to  the  surface.  It 
did  more.  It  reduced  their  refractory  ores  for  the  hand 
of  man,  and  enabled  him  to  gather  directly  the  native 
metal.  Still  more.  The  same  fiery  outburst  bent  the  flinty 
rocks  into  the  form  of  a  huge  trough,  and  Heaven  sent 
down  water  to  fill  it  and  float  the  steam-sped  vessel  to  the 
copper-bearing  shore.  And  lastly,  lest  the  manhood  of  our 
race  should  be  spent  before  the  discovery  of  the  treasure, 
all-provident  Nature  broke  up  samples  of  cupriferous  rock, 
and  strewed  them  along  the  shore,  and  along  the  river- 
courses,  so  that,  when  man  should  find  them,  he  might  trace 
the  trail,  as  by  a  clew,  to  the  original  store-house  of  the  na- 
tive metal.  And  all  these  preparations,  and  provisions,  and 
utilities  have  no  relations  to  any  other  terrestrial  denizen 
than  man. 


ANTICIPATIONS  OF  MAN  IN  NATURE.  335 

Nature  has  rained  for  us  in  gold.  Deep  in  the  rocky  re- 
cesses of  the  earth  lay  the  precious  metal.  It  must  be 
brought  to  the  light  of  day.  But  Nature  does  not  do  this 
till  the  work  of  sowing  sediments — the  seeds  of  rocky 
growth — has  been  completed  over  all  the  areas  destined  to 
be  inhabited  by  man.  Had  the  deep-treasured  gold  been 
brought  up  in  the  Mesozoic  Ages,  the  inundations  and  vi- 
cissitudes of  later  times  would  have  scattered  it  over  the 
breadth  of  the  land  and  the  sea  before  our  race  had  made 
its  advent.  No  such  false  step  was  taken.  It  is  only  after 
the  Tertiary  beds  have  been  all  deposited  that  Nature 
throws  up  innumerable  veins  of  quartz,  which  bring  along 
with  them  the  glittering  gold.  This  is  well ;  but  Nature 
possessed  a  quartz-crushing  machine  in  the  shape  of  a  gla- 
cier a  mile  in  thickness,  and  some  hundreds,  if  not  thou- 
sands of  miles  in  horizontal  extent,  and  this  she  drew  over 
the  projecting  veins  of  auriferous  quartz  and  ground  them 
to  powder.  These,  at  least,  are  the  general  views  put  for- 
ward by  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  in  regard  to  the  principal 
gold  regions  of  the  world.  The  California  geologists,  how- 
ever, aver  that  the  great  ice-plow  never  scored  the  ribs  of 
the  Sierra  Nevadas.  Nature  may  have  pulverized  the  gold- 
quartz  of  our  Western  states  and  territories  by  some  other 
agency.  Nevertheless,  it  has  been  crushed  and  comminu- 
ted on  a  stupendous  scale.  When  this  work  was  done,  by 
whatever  means,  she  brought  her  gold-washing  machine 
into  requisition,  and  "jigged"  the  golden  sands  till  the  yel- 
low particles  were  well  assorted,  and  then  strewed  them 
along  the  narrow  ravines  to  await  the  attentions  of  the 
coming  man. 

But  we  need  not  go  to  the  golden  sands  of  the  Sacra- 
mento to  read  the  anticipations  of  man  in  the  arrangements 
of  Nature.  What  is  every  well  and  spring  but  a  subterra- 
nean stream  that  has  been  beguiled  to  light  by  the  out- 


336  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

cropping  of  the  impervious  floor  over  which  it  had  flowed? 
We  need  not  attempt  to  imagine  what  would  have  result- 
ed, were  the  rocks  left  to  rest  in  horizontal  and  continuous 
layers,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  recognize  the  beneficence 
of  that  vast  accumulation  of  loose  materials  which  we  call 
drift.  It  is,  as  it  were,  an  enormous  sponge,  which  drinks 
in  the  showers  of  heaven,  and  stores  them  away  beyond  the 
reach  of  defilement  and  putrefaction  in  the  deep,  cool  reser- 
voirs of  the  filtering  sand-beds,  so  that  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  penetrate  the  drift  to  a  depth  sufficient  to  secure 
an  agreeable  coolness  without  obtaining  a  plentiful  supply 
of  well-strained  water.  So  common  and  so  vital  a  comfort 
has  been  secured  by  the  geologically-extraordinary  deposi- 
tion of  such  masses  of  loose  materials  over  the  surfaces  of 
the  naked  rocks,  and  not  less  by  their  distribution  in  beds 
of  sand  and  clay  presenting  every  possible  irregularity  of 
thickness,  extent,  and  disposition.     (See  Fig.  84.) 

These  and  multitudes  of  other  arrangements,  colloca- 
tions, structures,  and  products  of  a  useful  and  beneficent 
character,  are  so  many  indications  that  during  the  long 
process  of  the  world's  fitting  up — while  yet  the  human  era 
was  contemplated  as  we  contemplate  the  millennium— man, 
the  nature  of  man,  and  the  wants  of  man,  constituted  at 
least  one  of  the  objective  points  of  cycles  of  geological 
preparation. 

Finally,  it  is  eminently  worthy  of  remark  that  Nature 
has  not  only  anticipated  the  coming  of  man,  but  has  con- 
templated the  exercise  of  human  intelligence.  How  few 
of  the  benefits  which  Nature  affords  have  been  reached 
without  study  and  thought !  None  will  affirm  that  matter 
was  endowed  with  all  its  capabilities  of  benefit  to  the  hu- 
man race  without  any  design  that  those  benefits  should  be 
secured  and  enjoyed.  This  is  tantamount  to  saying  that 
the  provisions  of  Nature  prophesy  a  reasoning  mind.     We 


ANTICIPATIONS   OF  MAN  IN  NATURE.  337 

may  venture  to  go  much  farther  than  this,  and  assert  that 
the  material  of  thought  which  Nature  furnishes  is  corre- 
lated to  the  thinking  principle  in  man.  When  the  Creator 
adopted  an  intelligent  method  in  the  ordinations  of  the 
material  world,  it  was  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  pur- 
pose to  introduce  an  intelligent  being.  And  when  the 
Creator  had  stocked  the  world  with  the  materials  of 
thought,  and  had  planted  in  it  a  being  capable  of  under- 
standing Nature,  it  was  the  obvious  purpose  of  the  Deity 
that  Nature  should  be  investigated,  and  that,  by  such  in- 
vestigations, man  should  become  not  only  wiser,  but  more 
reverent,  religious,  and  happy. 

P 


338  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE     TOOTH     OF     TIME. 

A  FEW  words  about  the  disintegration  of  the  rocks. 
As  the  vital  force  employs  itself  in  the  demolition  of 
the  organic  structures  and  the  simultaneous  repair  of  all 
the  wastages,  so  the  gigantic  energies  of  geology  have 
busied  themselves  in  one  age  or  place  in  demolishing  the 
rocky  fabrics  consolidated  with  incredible  labor  in  another 
age  or  place.  The  grain  of  sand  upon  the  rivulet's  border 
may  have  been  incorporated  successively  into  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent formations,  each  in  turn  disintegrated  to  be  in- 
wrought in  the  rocky  sheets  of  the  next  succeeding  age. 

Has  the  reader  ever  inquired  whence  came  the  materials 
for  twenty-five  miles  of  sedimentary  strata  ?  It  is  a  ques- 
tion which  geology  is  compelled  to  answer.  The  first  and 
lowest  great  system  of  strata — the  Laurentian — is  in  Can- 
ada thirty  or  forty  thousand  feet  thick.  This  system  is 
supposed  to  embrace  nearly  the  entire  globe,  passing  be- 
neath the  Paleozoic,  Mesozoic,  and  Cenozoic  strata,  and  ex- 
tending, probably  with  greatly  diminished  thickness,  under 
the  beds  of  the  existing  oceans.  It  must  have  been  accu- 
mulated while  yet  the  primeval  sea  was  wellnigh  univer- 
sal. This  is  the  prevalent  opinion.  It  is  perfectly  plain, 
however,  that  these  vast  beds  of  sediment  must  have  had 
an  origin  in  pre-existing  rocks  lying  within  reach  of  the 
denuding  agencies  of  the  time.  How  enormous  a  bulk  of 
solid  rocks  was  ground  to  powder  to  furnish  material  for 
these  Laurentian  strata  may  be  imagined  when  the  reader 
is  reminded  that  the  mean  elevation  of  North  America  is 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  339 

but  about  twelve  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea; 
and  if  the  entire  continent  were  ground  to  powder  down  to 
the  sea-level,  and  distributed  over  an  area  of  the  ocean's 
bottom  equal  only  in  extent  to  North  America,  it  would 
afford  a  bed  of  strata  not  one  twentieth  the  thickness  of 
the  Laurentian  system  over  the  same  region.  Whence, 
then,  the  materials  for  so  vast  an  accumulation  of  sedi- 
ments? Where  were  the  lands  which  must  have  disap- 
peared during  the  Laurentian  Age?  Although  we  may 
not  be  able  to  indicate  their  location,  the  facts  suggested 
serve  to  remind  us  of  the  gigantic  scale  of  operations  of 
the  denuding  agencies  of  primeval  time. 

Every  succeeding  geological  age  must  also  have  had  its 
source  of  supply  to  the  contemporaneous  sediments.  The 
ever-growing  continents  were  ever  wearing  down.  As  the 
increasing  pressure  of  the  accumulating  oceans  crowded 
higher  the  summits  of  the  continental  axes,  the  ceaseless 
demands  of  the  insatiate  sea  for  more  sediments  'wore 
thinner  and  thinner  their  denuded  scalps.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  included  fires  burst  forth  at  the  summits  of  the  high- 
est mountains.  These  are  the  exposed  points,  where  the 
earth's  crust  has  been  reduced  to  the  greatest  degree  of 
tenuity,  while  the  ocean's  floor  is  the  most  solid  portion 
of  the  globe. 

The  outburst  along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior 
at  the  close  of  the  Potsdam  period  developed  topograph^ 
ical  features  of  infinitely  greater  ruggedness  than  those 
which  now  characterize  that  region.  Kewenaw  Point,  the 
Porcupine  Mountains,  and  the  Huron  Mountains,  as  well  as 
the  numberless  unnamed  knobs  still  standing  throughout 
the  region,  have  been  gnawed  and  battered  down  for  hun- 
dreds of  feet,  and  their  once  angular  outlines  have  been 
scoured  to  a  subdued  rotundity.  The  Appalachians,  that 
once  lifted  their  multiplied  folds  to  the  heights  of  the  An- 


340  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

des,  have  been  planed  down  to  the  level  of  third-rate  moun- 
tains, and  the  dust  and  rubbish  scraped  from  their  worn 
heads  has  been  deposited  in  the  troughs  between  the  ridges, 
or  strewn  along  the  coast  to  form  the  foundations  of  the 
Atlantic  States. 

The  city  of  Cincinnati  stands  upon  the  exposed  core,  of 
the  broadest  and  most  westerly  of  these  Appalachian  folds. 
The  rocky  wrappings  of  this  axis  have  been  planed  down 
from  the  summit  till  the  Carboniferous,  Devonian,  Upper 
Silurian,  and  Lower  Silurian  strata  have  been  successively 
reached,  and  these  superincumbent  layers  tilt  in  all  direc- 
tions from  the  summit  of  the  arch.  The  graves  of  encri- 
nites  and  brachiopods,  that  had  lain  undisturbed  for  untold 
geological  cycles,  buried  a  thousand  feet  beneath  ocean- 
slime  and  careering  waves,  and,  at  a  later  period,  beneath 
the  roots  of  Carboniferous  tree-ferns  and  the  mire  of  steam- 
ing jungles — graves  of  populous  nations  of  the  olden  time 
— we*e  uncovered  and  plowed  from  their  locations,  and 
crumbling  skeletons  were  strewn  over  the  area  of  three 
states.  So  the  spirit  of  modern  improvement  sometimes 
lays  its  remorseless  hand  on  the  cemeteries  of  man,  and 
sunlight  falls  again  upon  relics  that  had  once  been  laid 
away  with  sacred  care.  What  veneration  fills  the  mind 
of  the  geologist  as  he  walks  over  this  waste  of  the  Silurian 
burial-vaults.  The  Ohio  has  plowed  its  way  through  the 
buried  city,  and  a  city  of  the  living  has  been  reared  upon 
the  bones  of  the  dead.  The  native  ramparts  which  wall 
in  the  Queen  City  upon  every  side  are  but  the  broken  tiers 
of  vaults  in  this  ancient  cemetery.  The  area  of  this  dese- 
cration extends  to  Madison  and  Richmond  in  Indiana,  and 
to  Danville  and  Richmond  in  Kentucky.  Throughout  this 
entire  extent  of  country  the  once  superincumbent  forma- 
tions have  been  swept  away,  and  the  material  wrought  into 
the  structure  of  formations  of  later  date. 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  341 

I  ascend  to  the  cupola  of  the  magnificent  state-house  at 
Nashville,  and  take  a  survey  of  the  surrounding  country. 
On  every  side  spread  out  the  broadly  undulating  fields  of 
grass  and  corn  into  the  illimitable  distance.  A  finer  agri- 
cultural scene  was  never  witnessed.  A  more  beautiful 
landscape,  diversified  with  broad  clearings,  waving  crops, 
tufts  of  magnolia  and  poplar,  shining  mansions,  withdraw- 
ing vales,  and  purple  atmosphere,  it  has  never  been  my 
privilege  to  gaze  upon.  What  is  the  substratum  of  all  this 
beauty  of  form  and  landscape  ?  Descending  to  the  ground, 
I  find  myself  standing  again  upon  the  opened  sepulchres 
of  Lower  Silurian  populations.  I  go  down  to  the  bank  of 
the  Cumberland,  and  view  the  sharp-cut  walls  which  frown 
above  the  muddy  current  a  hundred  feet  below.  Here  is  a 
deep  perpendicular  gorge  chiseled  by  the  river  through 
the  marble  strata  of  the  Trenton  and  Cincinnati  groups. 
I  set  out  upon  an  exploration  of  the  charming  country 
mapped  before  me  from  the  dome  of  the  Capitol.  Travel- 
ing eastward  for  sixty  miles,  I  pass  continuously  over  an 
undulating  exposure  of  the  same  strata.  Here  I  find  an 
outer  wall  four  hundred  feet  high,  which  bounds  this  mag- 
nificent basin  of  Middle  Tennessee  on  every  side  (Fig.  95). 
I  climb  to  the  top  of  this  wall,  and  ascertain  that  it  is  at 
this  point,  the  western  termination  of  a  series  of  overlying 
strata  of  Silurian  and  Devonian  age,  which  to  the  west 
have  been  swept  away,  but  toward  the  east  form  an  ele- 
vated plateau,  through  which  the  streams  have  scored  deep 
gorges  four  hundred  feet  down  to  the  level  of  the  central 
basin. 

This  "  highland  rim,"  as  my  scientific  friend,  Professor 
Safford,  styles  it,  is  forty  miles  wide.  We  come  then  to 
the  foot  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains — or,  more  properly, 
Cumberland  Table-land — and  ascend  a  thousand  feet  over 
the  outcropping  edges  of  Lower  Carboniferous  strata,  and 


342 


SKETCHES    OF   CREATION. 


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find  the  brink  of  this  higher  wall 
composed  of  beetling  escarpments 
of  the  Coal  conglomerate.  I  mount 
one  of  the  overhanging  cliffs  at  Bon 
Air — an  old  but  now  ruined  water- 
ing-place and  summer  resort — and 
look  down  hundreds  of  feet  upon 
the  green  tree-tops,  from  whose  sun- 
ny summits  ascends  the  chorus  of  a 
myriad  warblers.  Far  away  to  the 
west  stretches  the  landscape  over 
which  I  have  traveled,  and  its  far- 
ther verge  blends  with  the  azure 
which  overarches  all.  Far  toward 
the  north  and  south  spreads  out  the 
basin  of  Tennessee;  and  over  all 
hangs  the  purple  haze  with  which 
Nature  half  conceals,  and  thereby 
heightens  her  charms.  Southward 
rise  sheer  from  the  plain  some  iso- 
lated knobs  and  ridges,  which  mark 
the  commencement  of  the  region 
whose  general  structure  embraces 
Lookout  Mountain,  Missionary 
Ridge,  and  similar  precipitous  ele- 
vations along  the  southern  border 
of  the  state. 

From  the  dizzy  brink  on  which  I 
stand  stretches  eastward  a  cool  and 
salubrious  table-land,  known  as  the 
Cumberland  Table-land,  marked  by 
a  soil,  and  forest-growth,  and  cli- 
mate as  distinct  from  those  of  the 
basin  below  as  Wisconsin  from  the 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  343 

prairie  region  of  Illinois.  The  underlying  strata  are  nearly 
horizontal.  Why  now  do  they  terminate  so  abruptly  at 
the  mountain  wall  which  we  scale  to  reach  Bon  Air  ?  The 
cut  margins  of  these  mountain  ribs  lie  exposed  and  pro- 
truding from  base  to  summit  of  the  laborious  ascent.  Did 
Nature  form  them  originally  thus  ?  We  are  forced  to  con- 
clude that  these  mountain  sheets,  like  those  under  the 
"  highland  rim,"  imce  extended  westward  over  the  basin 
of  Tennessee,  and  have  been  scooped  out  by  some  tremen- 
dous agency  appointed  by  Nature  to  furnish  materials  for 
the  states — then  future — of  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Missis- 
sippi. The  Cumberland  Table-land  and  the  abrupt  knobs 
about  Chattanooga  are  not  upheavals,  but  lines  of  relief. 
It  is  the  valleys  that  have  been  made,  and  not  the  moun- 
tains. The  mountains  are  landmarks — "  benchmarks"  the 
engineer  might  say— showing  the  former  level  of  the  en- 
tire region. 

If  we  travel  westward  or  northward  from  Nashville  we 
find  the  basin  walled  in  by  the  "  highland  rim,"  though  it 
is  only  on  the  east  that  the  pile  of  strata  rises  so  high  as 
to  bring  us  within  the  limits  of  the  Coal-measures.  Here, 
then,  is  one  of  the  most  stupendous  examples  of  geological 
denudation.  What  the  precise  nature  of  the  agency  by 
which  this  work  was  done  we  can  only  conjecture.  Equal- 
ly uncertain  is  the  precise  date  of  the  work.  We  can  only 
say  that  it  was  performed  between  the  close  of  Paleozoic 
Time  and  the  present,  but  as  to  the  reality  and  almost  in- 
calculable vastness  of  the  work  we  have  no  room  to  doubt. 
Neither  can  we  fail  to  see  that  such  enormous  excavations 
must  have  been  in  progress  in  all  ages,  to  furnish  the  requi- 
site amount  of  materials  for  formations  of  continental  ex- 
tent, and  attaining  a  thickness  of  hundreds  or  thousands  of 
feet. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  the  monuments  of  destructive 


344  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

action  around  the  shores  of  the  great  lakes.  Even  mimic 
oceans  like  these,  in  the  era  of  their  strength,  have  per- 
formed labors  which  excite  our  astonishment.  And  that 
Titanic  power  which  geology  dimly  pictures  to  us  as  mov- 
ing in  glacier-masses  from  parallel  to  parallel,  riding  over 
primeval  forests,  obliterating  ancient  river-beds,  plowing 
out  lake-basins  to  the  depth  of  nine  hundred  feet,  and 
crushing  to  powder  countless  cubic  miles  of  obdurate 
granite  and  quartz — that  power  of  which  we  can  little  more 
than  dream,  though  the  records  of  its  marvelous  march  are 
scattered  about  on  every  side — a  power  which  may  have 
been  summoned  into  exercise  at  more  than  one  period  in 
the  world's  history — that  power  whose  movement  was  re- 
sistless as  fate,  and  destructive  as  the  crash  of  worlds,  can 
serve  at  least  to  impress  our  minds  with  the  energy  of  geo- 
logical agencies,  and  the  resources  at  Nature's  hand  for  the 
scooping  of  lake-basins,  the  carving  of  mountain  cliffs,  or 
the  scraping  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

Even  the  humble  river-stream — humble  by  comparison, 
but  terrific  as  Niagara  in  unwasting  and  untiring  power — 
has  accomplished  work  at  which  the  highest  human  engi- 
neering stands  appalled.  The  Kentucky  and  the  Cumber- 
land, in  traversing  the  states  which  they  drain,  have  worn 
their  channels  to  the  depth  of  hundreds  of  feet  below  the 
general  level  of  the  country.  Some  of  the  wildest  and 
most  attractive  scenery  of  the  continent  lies  along  the 
Kentucky,  from  the  mouth  of  Hickman's  Creek  in  Garrard 
County,  to  Dix  River  and  Coger's  Ferry  in  Mercer  County. 
Even  the  smallest  streams  have  aped  the  pretentious  labors 
of  the  larger,  and  have  succeeded  in  opening  their  narrower 
gorges  through  two,  three,  and  four  hundred  feet  of  the 
blue  limestone  of  the  blue-grass  lands  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee. 

But  these  all  are  pigmy  works  compared  with  those  of 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  345 

the  streams  which  traverse  the  "  Great  American  Desert." 
For  the  most  vivid  descriptions  of  the  geology  of  this  for- 
saken region  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Newberry,  the  geolo- 
gist of  Ives's  Colorado  Expedition  under  the  general  gov- 
ernment. The  surface  formations  are  mostly  of  later  Car- 
boniferous and  Mesozoic  age,  interrupted  at  intervals  by 
mountain-like  outbursts  of  volcanic  origin.  The  region  is 
a  vast  plateau  stretching  for  hundreds  of  miles  in  either 
direction  (Fig.  96).  The  floor  of  the  plateau  is  a  mass  of 
horizontal  strata.  Far  in  the  hazy  horizon  may  be  seen 
the  bold  wall,  which  rises  to  a  more  elevated  table-land 
composed  of  overlying  strata.  These  higher  strata  were 
once  continuous  over  the  surface  of  the  lower  plateau,  but 
have  been  swept  off  by  denudation.  Still  farther  in  the 
horizon  looms  up  another  gigantic  terrace,  rising  to  the  up- 
per plateau  of  the  desert.  The  traveler  journeying  across 
this  apparently  monotonous  and  desert  plain  finds  himself 
suddenly  standing  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice.  It  is  the 
wall  of  a  deep  gorge.  Down  into  this  gloomy  chasm  he 
endeavors  to  cast  a  look.  It  is  like  a  vertical  rent  through 
the  strata  to  the  appalling  depth  of  more  than  a  mile. 
Far  down  at  the  bottom  winds  the  sky-lighted  stream 
which  has  executed  this  tremendous  piece  of  engineering, 
quiet  now  as  a  lamb,  but  in  spring-time  roaring  and  de- 
structive as  a  lion.  This  is  the  Colorado.  Its  immediate 
banks  are  fringed  at  intervals  by  a  narrow  border  of  grass, 
and  these  meagre  grass-plots  down  in  the  rocky  cleft  are 
the  occasional  abode  of  the  desert  Indian.  The  great  Black 
Canon  of  the  Colorado  is  a  gorge  with  perpendicular  walls 
of  rock  three  hundred  miles  long,  and  from  three  thousand 
to  six  thousand  feet  high !  The  lateral  streams  have  cut 
similar  gorges,  and  these  almost  impassable  chasms  con- 
stitute formidable  difficulties  in  traversing  the  country 
(Fig.  97).     The  Colorado  "has  cut  through  the  entire  series 

P2 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  347 

of  formations,  and  sunken  a  thousand  feet  into  the  solid 
granite.  The  section  of  the  rocks  in  the  gorge  shows 
above  the  granite  two  or  three  thousand  feet  of  paleozoic 
sandstones,  shales,  and  limestones,  one  thousand  feet  of  sub- 
carboniferous  limestones,  and  twelve  hundred  feet  of  car- 
boniferous sandstone  and  limestone.  Higher  up  the  stream 
the  section  extends  up  through  the  Triassic  and  Cretaceous 
systems. 

What  aeons  have  rolled  by  while  this  unparalleled  river- 
work  has  been  in  progress  !  And  yet  this  work  must  have 
been  limited  to  the  later  ages,  since  the  gorge  cuts  through 
Cretaceous  strata.  There  was  a  time,  during  the  Cenozoic 
ages,  before  yet  the  ridges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  had 
been  elevated  to  their  present  altitudes,  when  this  vast 
desert  had  just  become  dry  land — upheaved  from  the  re- 
cent bottom  of  the  Cretaceous  sea.  Now  the  Colorado  be- 
gan to  gather  its  forces  and  to  irrigate  the  surface  of  the 
new-formed  land.  Now  began  the  great  canon ;  but  for 
many  ages  the  surface  features  of  the  region  were  normal; 
and  not  improbably  it  was  clothed  with  a  soil,  and  watered 
by  streams  which  sustained  a  luxuriant  growth  of  vegeta- 
tion. But  man  was  slumbering  in  the  voiceless  future,  and 
lazy  reptiles*  held  possession  of  the  fair  domain.  Vast,  then, 
as  is  the  work,  and  vast  as  must  have  been  its  duration,  its 
commencement  can  date  back  but  to  the  end,  or,  at  farthest, 
to  the  beginning  of  Cenozoic  Time. 

Who  can  tell  but  similar  gorges  have  been  cut  in  the 
strata  of  more  eastern  states.  Here  was  land — permanent 
land — covered  with  vegetation,  while  yet  the  great  desert 
was  but  ocean-slime.  Here,  too,  were  rivers — rivers  like 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi — with  their  numerous  tribu- 
taries. What  prevented  these  streams  from  scoring  the 
strata  to  the  depth  of  ten  thousand  feet  ?  We  know  that 
during  this  interval  the  Niagara  cut  an  ancient  gorge.    We 


Fier.  97.  "Big  Canon"  of  the  Colorado. 


THE  TOOTH  OF  TIME.  349 

know  that  an  ancient  river-bed  stretches  from  Lake  Michi- 
gan down  through  the  valley  of  the  Illinois.  The  subter- 
ranean explorations  of  the  well-borer's  auger  have  disclosed 
multitudes  of  ancient  gorges  which  are  now  filled  up  with 
drift.  If  such  tremendous  gorges  were  ever  cut,  they  were 
filled  up  and  obliterated  by  the  great  glacier.  And  may 
not  this  reparation  of  the  surface  have  been  one  of  the  be- 
neficent operations  of  the  glacier?  We  are  told  no  glacial 
action  is  detected  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Had  the 
great  glacier  been  moved  over  the  deep-cut  gorges  of  the 
great  desert,  they  must  have  been  filled  and  blotted  out, 
and  the  new-formed  streams,  on  the  advent  of  man,  would 
have  been  just  in  the  act  of  surveying  new  channels  for 
themselves.  The  bare  rock  would  have  been  clothed  with 
soil,  and  the  "  desert"  might  have  been  the  garden  of  the 
continent. 


350 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

PRIMEVAL   MAN. 

THE  history  of  our  race,  traced  back  a  few  thousand 
years,  loses  itself  in  traditions  and  myths.  "We  come 
down  out  of  a  cloud  of  obscurity,  in  which  we  can  just  dis- 
cern the  rude  forms  of  men  clad  in  skins,  frequenting  the 
caves  of  wild  beasts,  fashioning  rude  pottery,  and  practi- 
cing in  the  chase  with  the  primeval  bow  and  arrow.  Out 
of  the  haze  which  hangs  over  the  verge  of  antiquity  come 
sounds  of  conflict  in  arms,  paeans  of  peace,  hymns  to  relig- 
ion, and  the  hum  of  barbaric  industry. 

Our  written  history  does  not  extend  back  to  the  origin 
of  man.  The  Mosaic  records,  which  are  undoubtedly  the 
oldest  of  our  authentic  documents,  represent  the  western 
portion  of  Asia  as  swarming  with  a  population  tolerably 
advanced  in  the  arts  at  a  period  two  or  three  thousand 
years  antecedent  to  our  era.  There  was,  consequently,  a 
long  interval  of  human  history  still  anterior  to  this  date. 
What  destinies  befell  our  race — how  did  they  live,  whither 
did  they  wandeiyduring  that  prolonged  infancy  of  which — 
Revelation  aside — we  have  no  other  information  than  such 
as  we  have  gleaned  of  the  Mastodon,  the  Megatherium,  or 
the  Zeuglodon  ? 

The  quickened  intellectual  activity  of  the  modern  age 
lias  started  new  and  interesting  inquiries  in  this  direction. 
There  are  no  questions  which  more  profoundly  interest  us 
than  the  history  of  primeval  man.  The  investigation  has 
been  pushed  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  most  ancient  writ- 
ten documents.     It  has  passed  over  the  remoter  domain  of 


352 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


archaeology  and  stepped  upon  the  ground  consecrated  to 
the  researches  of  geology. 

The  chief  sources  of  our  information  respecting  the-earli- 
est  periods  of  human  history  are,  1st.  The  remains  of  man 
himself,  which  have  been  found  in  caves  or  buried  in  de- 
posits of  gravel  or  peat.  2d.  Human  works,  of  which  we 
have  the  so-called  Druidical  remains  of  Great  Britain  and 
other  countries,  known  as  dolmens  or  cromlechs — rude 
megalithic  monuments  of  unhewn  stone,  which  we  now 
know  to  be  ancient  tombs.  Other  human  works  more 
abundant  and  more  universally  distributed  are  implements 
of  war,  of  the  chase,  of  industry,  or  of  ornament.  These 
are  found  in  gravel-beds  along  the  valleys  of  rivers  or  at 
their  mouths ;  in  peat  beds ;  in  caves,  and  among  the  re- 
fuse piles  contiguous  to  the  camping  or  dwelling-places  of 
tribes  which  subsisted  partly  upon  molluscs.  These  refuse 
heaps  are  composed  mostly  of  shells  of  recent  species,  bones 
of  domestic  or  wild  animals  suitable  for  food  or  service, 
fragments  of  pottery,  arrow-heads,  fish-hooks,  stone  imple- 
ments, ornaments,  and  the  like.  A  vast  supply  of  the  rel- 
ics of  primeval  man  has  been  obtained  from  the  pile-hab- 
itations, or  ancient  dwellings  constructed  upon  platforms 
supported  by  piles  driven  in  the  water.  The  dredging  of 
the  bottoms  of  these  lakes  has  brought  to  light  immense 
quantities  of  the  remains  of  pre-historic  art  and  industry. 
3d.  The  manner  in  which  the  relics  of  man  are  associated 
with  those  of  other  animals  enables  us  to  extend  to  our 
race  many  of  the  generalizations  deduced  in  reference  to 
the  earlier  history  of  the  existing  fauna.  Lastly,  the  na- 
ture and  magnitude  of  the  geological  changes  which  have 
transpired  during  the  existence  of  man  throw  some  light 
upon  the  antiquity  of  the  race. 

As  in  the  history  of  organic  life  in  general,  so  in  the  ge- 
ological history  of  man,  we  find  him  mounting  from  lower 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  353 

to  higher  manifestations  in  the  progress  of  the  ages.  There 
seems,  however,  to  be  a  fundamental  difference  in  the  two 
kinds  of  progress.  With  the  lower  animals  it  is  a  struc- 
tural advance ;  with  man,  an  education.  With  the  former 
the  steps  of  the  advance  are  marked  by  successive  species ; 
with  man  by  successively  higher  attainments  of  the  intelli- 
gence. With  the  other  vertebrates  the  highest  is  structur- 
ally different ;  with  the  succession  of  human  races,  the 
highest  and  the  lowest  are  structurally  identical. 

Archaeologists  distinguish  three  ages  in  the  history  of 
man — the  Age  of  Stone,  the  Age  of  Bronze,  and  the  Age 
of  Iron.  In  the  Age  of  Stone,  the  uses  of  the  metals  had 
not  been  discovered,  and  human  implements  were  con- 
structed of  flint,  serpentine,  diorite,  argillite,  and  other  suit- 
able rocks.  In  the  Age  of  Bronze,  implements  of  bronze 
began  to  be  introduced,  and  we  descend  to  the  verge  of 
historic  times.  The  Age  of  Iron  is  characterized  by  the 
use  of  that  metal,  and  the  arts  and  industries  of  the  most 
advanced  civilization. 

Most  anthropologists  are  inclined  to  subdivide  the  Age 
of  Stone  into  two  or  three  epochs.  Vogt,  Lartet,  and 
Christy  divide  it  into  two :  first,  the  Cave-Bear  Epoch,  or 
epoch  of  hewn  stone  implements  ;  secondly,  the  Reindeer 
Epoch,  or  epoch  of  polished  stone  implements,  carved  and 
artfully  decorated  bones,  and  other  evidences  of  "  a  very 
intelligent,  art-endowed  race  of  men." 

It  is  not  by  any  means  certain,  however,  that  these  two 
epochs  were  successive.  The  more  skilled  workmen  of  the 
Reindeer  Epoch  may  have  lived  contemporaneously  with 
the  Cave-Bear  men,  as  natives  of  all  degrees  of  civilization 
have  co-existed  upon  the  earth  in  all  ages.  Neither  is  it 
supposed  that  the  three  ages  represent  three  stages  of  hu- 
man civilization,  each  of  which,  in  turn,  has  been  world- 
wide.    We  find  simply  that  in  the  history  of  every  race 


354  SKETCH  EH   OF  CHEAT  I  OX. 

there  is  a  Stone  Age ;  and  if  the  race  advances,  this  is  fol- 
lowed by  an  Age  of  Bronze,  and  this  by  an  Age  of  Iron. 
Some  Eastern  nations  passed  out  of  their  Stone  Age  three 
thousand  years  or  more  before  the  Christian  era.  Some 
of  the  peoples  of  Central  and  Northern  Europe  were  in 
their  Stone  Age  when  Caesar  subjugated  Gaul.  The  Sand- 
wich Islanders  were  in  their  Stone  Age  when  first  visited 
by  Capt.  Cook,  while  the  Esquimaux  and  the  North  Amer- 
ican Indians  generally  are  still  in  their  Stone  Age.  The 
Age  of  Stone  is  simply  the  stage  of  infancy.  Different 
peoples  have  emerged  at  different  epochs  from  the  state  of 
national  infancy. 

When  man  first  made  his  advent  in  Europe,  that  conti- 
nent was  still  the  abode  of  quadrupeds  now  long  extinct. 
The  contemporaries  of  man  in  the  Hewn-stone  epoch  were 
the  Cave-Bear  ( Ursas  spelceus),  followed  by  the  Cave-Hy- 
ena {Hyena  spelcea)  and  the  Cave-Lion.  These  gradually 
gave  place  to  gigantic  herbivores — the  Hairy  Mammoth 
{Elephas  primigenius),  the  Hairy  Rhinoceros  {Rhinoceros 
tichorinus),  and  the  Reindeer.  The  mammoth  roamed  in 
herds  over  the  whole  of  Europe,  Northern  Asia,  and  even 
North  America.  The  hairy,  or  two-horned  rhinoceros, 
in  company  with  another  two-horned  species,  thundered 
through  the  forests,  or  wallowed  in  the  jungles  and  swamps. 
The  rivers  and  lakes  of  Southern  Europe  were  tenanted  by 
hippopotami  and  beavers — the  former  as  huge  and  un- 
wieldy, and  with  tusks  as  large  as  any  which  terrify  the 
African  Bushman.  Three  kinds  of  wild  oxen,  two  of 
which  were  of  colossal  strength,  and  one  of  these  "  maned 
and  villous  like  the  Bonassus,"  grazed  with  the  marmot, 
and  wild  goat,  and  chamois  upon  the  plains  which  skirt  the 
Mediterranean.  The  musk-ox  and  the  reindeer  browsed 
in  the  meadows  of  Perigord,  in  the  south  of  France,  while 
a  gigantic  elk  {Megaceros  hibernicus)  ranged  from  Ireland 
to  the  borders  of  Italy  (Fig.  99). 


PRIMEVAL   MAN. 


355 


Fig.  99.  Skeleton  of  Extinct  Giant  Elk  (Megaceros  hibernicus)  of  Ireland,  compared 
with  Man.     (Reduced  from  an  Irish  lithograph.) 

That  these  animals  lived  as  contemporaries  of  man  is 
proven  by  two  classes  of  evidence.  In  the  first  place,  the 
bones  of  man  and  the  relics  of  his  industry  are  found  pre- 
served in  the  same  situations  as  the  bones  of  these  extinct 
quadrupeds.  In  1828,  Tournol  and  Christol  disclosed  the 
coexistence  of  such  remains  in  the  caves  of  the  south  of 
France ;  and,  somewhat  later,  Schmerling  described  from 
caves  in  the  environs  of  Liege,  bones  and  even  crania  of 
men,  together  with  arrow-heads  and  other  articles  envel- 
oped in  the  same  stalagmites  with  the  remains  of  the 
mammoth,  rhinoceros,  cave-bear,  cave-hyena,  and  other  an- 
imals. A  similar  association  of  remains  has  been  observed 
by  Austen  in  the  celebrated  cave  of  Kent's  Hole,  near 
Torquay,  in  England.  More  recently  still,  more  import- 
ant discoveries  have  been  developed  by  M.  Lartet  from  the 


356 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


caves  in  the  south  of  France.  In  1841,  M.  Boucher  de 
Perthes  published  to  the  world  an  account  of  human  re- 
mains found  buried  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme,  near  Abbe- 
ville, in  company  with  the  bones  of  extinct  species  of 
quadrupeds.  In  1842  M.  Melleville  reaffirmed  these  dis- 
coveries, and  in  1844  M.  Aymard  presented  new  facts  dis- 
closed by  explorations  upon  the  slope  of  the  mountain  of 
La  Denise,  near  Puy.  In  1853  Dr.  Rigollot  announced  the 
discovery  at  St.  Acheul,  near  Amiens,  of  hatchets  and  arti- 
cles in  cut  stone,  found  imbedded  in  the  same  gravel  de- 
posit with  the  fossil  remains  of  the  hairy  elephant,  rhinoce- 
ros, and  extinct  ox.  Similar  discoveries  have  been  report- 
ed from  Spain,  Italy,  Greece,  Syria,  and  England.  In  the 
United  States  we  detect  also  some  evidences  of  the  coex- 
istence of  man  and  extinct  species  of  quadrupeds.  Dr. 
Koch,  the  reconstructor  of  the  Tertiary  Zeuglodon,  insisted 
Ion sr  ap;o  that  he  had  found  in  Missouri  such  an  association 
of  mastodon  and  Indian  remains  as  to  prove  that  the  two 
had  lived  contemporaneously.  I  have  myself  observed  the 
bones  of  the  mastodon  and  elephant  imbedded  in  peat  at 
depths  so  shallow  that  I  could  readily  believe  the  animals 
to  have  occupied  the  country  during  its  possession  by  the 
Indian;  and  gave  publication  to  this  conviction  in  1862. 
More  recently,  Professor  Holmes,  of  Charleston,  has  in- 
formed the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia 
that  he  finds  upon  the  banks  of  the  Ashley  River  a  remark- 
able conglomeration  of  fossil  remains  in  deposits  of  post- 
tertiary  age.  Remains  of  the  hog,  the  horse,  and  other 
animals  of  recent  date,  together  with  human  bones,  stone 
arrow-heads,  hatchets,  and  fragments  of  pottery,  are  there 
lying  mingled  with  the  bones  of  the  mastodon  and  extinct 
gigantic  lizards. 

Contemporary  with  these  American  animals,  but  not  yet 
found  associated  in  their  remains  with  the  relics  of  the  hu- 


PRIMEVAL   MAN.  357 

man  species,  lived,  in  North  America,  horses  much  larger 
than  the  existing  species,  grazing  in  company  with  wild 
oxen,  and  herds  of  bisons  {Bison  latifrons),  and  shrub- 
loving  tapirs  (Tapirus  Americanus).  The  streams  were 
dammed  by  the  labors  of  gigantic  beavers  (Castoro'ldes 
Ohiensis),  while  the  forests  aiforded  a  range  for  species 
of  hog  (Dicotyles),  and  a  grateful  dwelling-place  for  nu- 
merous edentate  quadrupeds  related  to  the  sloth,  but  of 
gigantic  proportions. 

In  the  next  place,  evidences  of  the  contemporaneity  of 
man  with  species  of  quadrupeds  now  extinct  are  found  in 
carved  and  deftly-fashioned  implements  and  other  articles 
made  of  the  horns,  bones,  and  teeth  of  these  animals,  and 
especially  by  representations  of  the  outlines  of  many  of 
them  executed  upon  ivory,  bone,  horn,  and  slate.  The 
most  remarkable  discoveries  of  this  kind  have  been  made 
by  M.  Lartet,  in  1864,  in  the  caves  of  Perigord,  in  the  south 
of  France.  In  the  midst  of  the  soil  and  debris  with  which 
the  bottom  of  these  caves  is  covered  have  been  exhumed 
various  etchings  of  animals,  executed  on  pieces  of  the  horns 
of  the  deer  and  the  ivory  of  the  elephant.  One  of  these 
sketches  represents  a  deer,  one  the  head  of  a  wild  goat,  an- 
other an  elk  allied  to  the  moose,  another  the  head  of  a  rein- 
deer, another  the  head  of  a  wild  boar,  and  still  another 
nearly  the  entire  outline  of  the  hairy  mammoth  (Fig.  100), 
which  conforms  marvelously  with  the  restoration  of  this 
proboscidean  published  by  the  Russian  naturalist  Brandt. 
There  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  artists  were  person- 
ally acquainted  with  the  animals  which  they  outlined  (Fig. 
101). 

As  we  descend  to  the  epoch  of  the  Reindeer  folk,  the 
principal" change  in  the  fauna  of  Europe  consists  in  a  dimi- 
nution of  the  number  of  carnivores  and  an  increase  of  the 
ruminants.    The  mastodon,  elephant,  reindeer,  elk,  and  oth- 


358 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


er  large  ruminants  still  survived.  Messrs.  Christyand  Lar- 
tet  found  a  vertebra  of  a  young  reindeer  transfixed  by  a 
flint  arrow-head.     Ornaments  made  of  teeth  have  been  dis- 


PRIMEVAL  MAN. 


359 


covered,  and  from  several  caves  have  been  obtained  bone 
whistles,  formed  by  boring  the  carpal  and  tarsal  bones  of 
ruminating  quadrupeds.  A  sculptured  dagger,  made  of  a 
single  piece  of  reindeer's  horn,  attests  the  contemporaneous 
existence  of  that  animal  in  the  south  of  France.  A  cylin- 
drical tool  found  in  the  same  vicinity  bears  upon  one  side 
the  heads  of  two  aurochs,  while  upon  the  other  are  the  pro- 
files of  two  horses,  with  a  human  face  between  them. 


Fig.  101.  The  Hairy  Mammoth  (Elephas  primigenius)  restored. 

The  exploration  of  the  dolmens,  or  monuments  of  enor- 
mous unhewn  stones,  so  abundant  in  France,  England,  and 
Scandinavia,  but  unmentioned  in  the  most  ancient  history 
of  these  countries,  shows  them  to  have  been  constructed  by 
men  of  the  Reindeer  Epoch.  Some  of  them,  from  the  pres- 
ence of  polished  stone  and  even  of  bronze  implements,  be- 
long evidently  to  the  closing  stage  of  this  epoch.     These 


36o  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

megaliths  have  been  found  not  only  in  the  regions  ancient- 
ly inhabited  by  the  Celts,  but  also  in  Syria,  Africa,  and  even 
in  Hindostan. 

A  similar  association  of  human  relics  with  the  bones  of 
quadrupeds  occurs  in  the  turf- pits  of  Denmark,  and  the 
Kjoek  kenmceddings  of  Denmark  and  Sweden.  The  only 
extinct  animals  recognized  in  the  latter  are  the  lynx  and 
urus,  though  bones  of  the  hog  and  dog  are  also  common. 

To  the  latter  part  of  the  Reindeer  Epoch  belong  also  the 
pile-structures  discovered  in  the  lakes  of  Switzerland.  The 
only  extinct  species  are  the  elk,  the  aurochs,  and  the  urus. 
Remains  of  still-existing  species,  as  the  brown  bear,  the 
badger,  the  pole-cat,  the  otter,  the  wolf,  the  dog,  the  fox, 
wild-cat,  beaver,  wild  boar,  goat,  and  sheep,  exist  in  great 
abundance  in  the  debris  dredged  from  the  bottoms  of  these 
lakes. 

Of  the  animals  thus  shown  to  have  lived  contemporane- 
ously with  primeval  man  upon  the  continent  of  Europe, 
the  cave-bear,  cave-hyena,  tiger,  mammoth,  mastodon,  and 
others  of  less  importance  became  extinct  before  the  date 
of  written  history;  but  these  extinct  quadrupeds  had  lived 
contemporaneously  with  others  which  have  come  down  to 
historic  times.  The  reindeer,  referred  to  by  Caesar  in  his 
Commentaries,  is  thought  to  have  survived  in  Northern 
Scotland  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century ;  the  Irish  elk  ex- 
isted up  to  the  fourteenth  century ;  the  reindeer  continued 
in  Denmark  till  the  sixteenth  century ;  the  urus  lingered 
in  Switzerland  up  to  the  sixteenth  century ;  the  bison  still 
survives  in  Lithuania,  and  the  wild  boar  is  abundant  in 
Central  Europe. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  Reindeer  folk  were  the 
successors  of  the  Cave-Bear  folk;  but  Dr.  Packard  has  very 
plausibly  suggested  that  they  may  have  lived  contempora- 
neously, side  by  side.     "  The  Reindeer  folk  may  have  in- 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  361 

habited  the  upper  valleys  and  hills  near  the  Alps  and  Py- 
renees, which  send  spurs  into  Southern  and  Central  France. 
They  were  perhaps  mountaineers,  and  the  animals  associa- 
ted with  them  and  most  characteristic  of  the  period  were 
Alpine  and  northern  species.  *  *  *  Their  neighbors, 
the  Flint  folk,  or  Lowlanders — a  taller  and  stronger  race — 
meantime  inhabited  the  plains  of  Northern  France  and  Bel- 
gium, England,  and  Germany,  and  the  fauna  was  made  up 
of  the  mammoth,  mastodon,  rhinoceros,  horse,  cave -bear 
(which  was  more  abundant  than  with  the  Reindeer  peo- 
ple), bison,  aurochs,  and  deer,  which  inhabited  the  more 
genial  and  fertile  plains." 

The  geological  status  of  the  continents  on  man's  first 
appearance  was  unique.  They  had  just  emerged  from  the 
reign  of  ice.  The  glaciers  had  begun  to  retreat,  but,  ex- 
cept in  Southern  Europe  and  Middle  Asia,  the  climate  was 
still  rigorous.  The  hairy  elephant  and  rhinoceros,  clad  in 
winter  furs,  as  well  as  the  fur-clad  bear  and  hyena,  found  a 
fitting  abode  upon  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  Mediter- 
ranean. The  marmot,  the  wild  goat,  and  the  chamois,  now 
confining  themselves  to  the  cold  peaks  of  the  Alps  and  the 
Apennines,  lived  then  upon  the  lowlands  of  France  and 
Spain.  The  musk-ox,  in  our  day  restricted  to  the  regions 
beyond  the  sixtieth  parallel  of  latitude,  grazed  in  the  cold 
marshes  of  Dordogne.  On  the  American  continent,  the 
subsidence  which  terminated  the  reign  of  frost  was  not  ar- 
rested till  a  large  portion  of  the  United  States  had  been 
again  submerged ;  and  on  the  Oriental  continent  the  indi- 
cations of  northern  depression  are  equally  unmistakable 
and  equally  extensive. 

The  moment  that  the  last  revolutionary  visitation  had 
come  to  an  end — while  yet  the  lands  had  become  scarcely 
stable  in  their  places — man  seems  to  have  suddenly  made 
his  appearance  among  the  beasts  of  the  earth,  and  to  have 

Q 


362  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

moved  among  them  and  controlled  them  with  a  conscious 
and  uncontested  superiority.  Let  us  see  what  can  be 
learned  of  the  habits  and  endowments  of  this  primeval 
man. 

Was  primeval  man  created  in  Europe,  where  we  have 
the  earliest  traces  of  his  existence,  or  was  he  here  an  emi- 
grant from  the  East?  In  answer  to  this  question  we  can 
produce  no  decisive  facts.  There  are,  however,  considera- 
tions of  weight.  In  all  the  later  epochs,  even  of  the  Age 
of  Stone,  there  was  evidently  a  continuous  migration  from 
the  direction  of  the  Asiatic  hive.  The  movement  of  popu- 
lation has  always  been  westward  in  regions  to  the  west  of 
the  Orient,  and  it  has  always  been  eastward  in  regions  to 
the  east  of  the  Orient.  The  westward  wave  overflowed 
Europe,  and  in  later  days  crossed  the  Atlantic.  The  east- 
ward wave  populated  Tartary  and  China,  and,  as  may  be 
presumed,  dashed  across  the  Straits  of  Behring,  and  flooded 
the  American  continent  at  a  remote  period.  To  say  the 
least,  till  the  American  shores  were  reached  by  the  west- 
ward wave  from  Europe,  the  tide  of  population  in  America 
had  always  set  from  north  to  south.  The  primeval  inhab- 
itants of  North  America  were  Asiatics  in  their  features, 
their  language,  and  their  arts,  and  tradition  speaks  of 
them  as  moving  from  the  direction  of  Asia.  These  move- 
ments of  human  populations,  like  radiating  streams,  from 
the  western  part  of  Asia,  certainly  afford  a  presumption 
that  the  only  people  of  whose  movement  we  have  neither 
history,  tradition,  nor  buried  monument,  proceeded  also 
from  the  direction  of  the  Orient. 

From  the  same  quarter  of  the  world  proceeded  most  of 
our  domestic  animals  and  plants,  and  in  the  same  quarter 
of  the  world  the  perpetually  uttered  prophecies  of  the  ge- 
ologic ages  proclaimed  that  the  line  of  animal  life  should 
have  its  culmination.     We  have,  then,  strong  presumptive 


PRIMEVAL  MAN  363 

evidence  that  the  men  of  the  Stone  Age  were  brethren  of 
the  men  who  came  afterward  from  the  East  and  taught- 
them  the  use  of  the  metals,  and  eventually  displaced  them 
from  the  fertile  plains  and  valleys  of  Southern  Europe.  It 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Iberian  tribes  and 
the  savage  Ligurians,  subjugated  by  the  Romans,  and  de- 
scribed by  CaBsar  as  dwelling  in  caves,  may  have  been  the 
southern  representatives  of  the  primitive  folk,  while  the 
Finns  and  Lapps,  as  Nilsson  suggests,  may  be  the  more 
modern  and  more  northern  representatives  of  the  same 
folk,  retreating  northward  with  the  retreat  of  the  glacial 
fauna  which  followed  the  retreat  of  the  glaciers.  From 
the  northern  shores  of  Europe  and  Asia  the  same  folk 
crossed  to  America ;  and  the  Esquimaux  and  North  Amer- 
ican Indians  are  the  Stone  folk  in  America,  still  following 
the  pursuits  of  their  ancestors — still  using  the  bow,  the 
kyak  or  canoe,  and  the  stone  hatchet,  and  perpetuating  the 
Age  of  Stone  in  a  remote  land. 

Primeval  man,  it  must  be  admitted,  was  a  barbarian,  but 
he  was  by  no  means  the  stepping-stone  between  the  apes 
and  modern  man.  There  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that 
he  was  not  possessed  of  the  faculty  of  speech,  and  did  not 
exercise  the  same  intellectual  and  moral  powers  as  the  cit- 
izen of  the  United  States.  Few  human  crania  or  other 
bones  have  ever  been  discovered  upon  which  the  judgment 
of  the  comparative  anatomist  could  be  brought  to  bear. 
Considerable  diversity  appears ;  but  the  skulls  belong  to 
the  brachycephalic  (or  round-head)  type,  which,  according 
to  respectable  ethnologists,  was  the  type  of  the  ancient 
Ligurian  head. 

Ijpmeval  man  used  the  spear  and  the  bow  in  his  conflicts 
with  the  tiger,  the  bear,  and  the  hyena,  and  in  the  wars 
which  he  waged  with  his  fellow-man;  he  chased  the  ele- 
phant, the  goat,  and  the  musk-ox  over  the  plains  of  South- 


364  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

ern  Europe,  and  fished  with  single  and  double  pointed 
barbed  hooks  in  the  cool  streams  of  Scandinavia.  That  he 
dwelt  in  caves  we  know.  These  were  Nature's  provision 
for  the  houseless.  But  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing 
that  he  did  not  soon  devise  more  comfortable  dwellings. 
He  seems  to  have  resided  at  times  upon  the  banks  of  riv- 
ers and  by  the  ocean's  shore.  Whole  villages,  it  would 
seem,  must  have  cast  into  one  common  pile  the  refuse  of 
their  tables.  These  accumulations  are  sometimes  several 
hundred  yards  in  length,  and  from  three  to  nine  feet  in 
height.  The  flint  folk,  whose  household  ware  is  mingled 
with  the  kitchen  rubbish,  must  have  dwelt  in  huts  above 
the  ground.  At  a  somewhat  later  epoch  we  know  that 
they  drove  piles  in  the  lakes  of  Central  Europe,  and  con- 
structed platforms  on  which  their  dwellings  were  built. 
From  these  habitations  they  cast  into  the  lake  the  refuse 
of  their  houses.  By  dredging,  we  recover  stores  of  broken 
pottery,  and  implements  of  stone  for  cutting  and  for  skin- 
ning, together  with  the  bones  of  quadrupeds  known  to  in- 
habit Europe  in  the  Age  of  Stone.  The  dolmens  of  the 
same  epoch  prove  also  that  primeval  man  understood  the 
art  of  rough  masonry. 

There  is  no  decisive  proof  that  the  earliest  flint  folk  en-' 
gaged  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  or  the  domestication  of 
the  wild  beasts.  It  is  true  that  *we  find  associated  with 
human  relics  the  remains  of  the  hog,  the  dog,  the  ox,  the 
horse,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the  deer,  the  reindeer,  the  ele- 
phant, all  of  which  have  been  domesticated  in  subsequent 
ages;  and  we  certainly  are  not  precluded  from  the  pre- 
sumption that  some  of  these  animals  began  to  yield  willing 
obedience  to  man  even  in  this  twilight  epoch.  We  fiust 
cheerfully  admit  that  these  primitive  people  may  have  ac- 
complished— undoubtedly  did  accomplish — many  achieve- 
ments of  skill  and  intelligence  of  which  it  is  now  impossi- 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  365 

ble  to  discover  the  record.  Their  food,  like  their  dwellings, 
was  at  first  supplied  spontaneously  by  Nature ;  but  during 
the  epoch  of  the  pile  habitations,  man  seems  to  have  learned 
the  art  of  producing  grain  and  vegetables.  In  some  of  the 
earthen  pots  dredged  from  the  Swiss  lakes  have  been  found 
winter  stores  of  fruits  and  cereals.  Among  them  were 
beautiful  specimens  of  wheat,  and,  in  addition,  barley,  oats, 
peas,  lentils,  and  acorns.  At  this  epoch  the  people  must 
have  cultivated  the  ground  and  raised  cattle.  The  discov- 
ery of  millstones,  with  pestles  of  granite  and  freestone, 
shows  that  they  knew  how  to  grind  their  grain.  The  use 
of  fire  was  known,  and  upon  this  they  roasted  their  meat. 
They  ate  the  marrow  and  brains  of  the  animals  killed,  as 
we  find  the  bones  split  open  for  the  removal  of  these  sub- 
stances. 

The  clothing  of  the  primeval  folk  was  probably  at  first 
formed  from  the  skins  of  quadrupeds ;  but  during  the  age 
of  the  lacustrine  cities  they  had  learned  the  art  of  manu- 
facturing textile  fabrics,  since  among  the  other  debris  of 
the  pile  habitations  have  been  found  fragments  of  linen 
cloth.  The  garments,  formed  either  of  skins,  bark,  or  cloth, 
were  sewed  together  with  needles  and  awls,  of  which  the 
lacustrine  cities  furnish  examples. 

The  man  of  this  period  was  possessed  of  some  degree  of 
taste.  This  is  shown  first  in  the  workmanship  displayed 
upon  the  bone  and  horn  handles  of  many  of  his  tools,  in 
the  finish  of  lance  and  arrow  heads,  knives  and  daggers,  in 
the  fashion  of  his  pottery,  and  in  beads  formed  of  pebbles, 
pieces  of  coral,  and  the  teeth  of  wild  animals.  In  some  in- 
stances whistles  have  been  found  made  of  the  digital  bones 
of  certain  ruminants.  His  taste,  and  even  no  mean  degree 
of  artistic  skill,  are  also  displayed  in  the  sculpturing  of  his 
tools  and  implements,  and  his  delineations  upon  pieces  of 
ivory,  horn,  and  slate.     "  The  decorations  on  many  pots 


366  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

and  implements,"  says  Vogt,"  consisting  of  simple,  straight, 
angular,  or  crossed  lines,  exhibit  a  certain  sense  of  beauty ; 
but  the  drawings  of  animals,  as  discovered  by  MM.  Lartet 
and  Garrigou,  are  still  more  surprising.  They  ar^e  mostly 
engraved  on  bones,  but  also  on  slate.  Those  found  by  M. 
Garrigou  represent  heads  and  tails  of  fishes ;  those  in  pos- 
session of  M.  Lartet  represent  large  mammals,  among  which 
the  reindeer  is  easily  recognized  by  the  antlers.  *  *  The 
masterpiece  in  Lartet's  collection  is  a  handle  carved  from 
the  antlers  of  a  reindeer,  a  real  sculptured  work,  the  body 
of  the  animal  being  so  turned  and  twisted  that  it  forms  a 
handle  for  a  boy's  hand.  All  other  drawings  are  in  sharp 
and  firm  outlines,  graved  upon  the  surface  of  the  bone,  and 
it  may  be  seen  that  the  artist,  in  working  it,  turned  the 
bone  in  various  directions."  The  most  interesting  of  all 
these  relics  of  primeval  art  is  the  delineation  upon  ivory 
of  the  outlines  of  the  hairy  mammoth  in  a  style  which, 
though  rudely  and  carelessly  executed,  leaves  no  doubt  of 
the  identity  of  the  original  of  the  picture.  These  people 
evidently  possessed  a  marked  predisposition  to  art.  The 
rude  hunter,  wearied  in  the  chase,  amused  himself  in  repro- 
ducing upon  ivory  and  stone  the  forms  that  had  excited 
his  interest,  and  upon  which  undoubtedly  he  depended  for 
subsistence  and  perhaps  for  service. 

Lastly,  primeval  man  was  endowed  with  a  religious  na- 
ture. He  formed  numerous  utensils  consecrated  to  the 
ceremonies  of  religion.  He  buried  his  dead  in  grottoes 
closed  with  slabs,  as  the  Jews  continued  to  do  at  a  later 
day.  The  recumbent  position  of  many  of  the  skeletons 
shows  that,  like  the  dead  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  they 
were  entombed  with  an  observance  of  religious  rites.  Like 
the  American  Indian,  he  provided  his  deceased  friend  with 
food  and  arms  to  supply  his  necessities  while  on  the  jour- 
ney to  another  world.     These  are  facts  of  extreme  signifi- 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  367 

cance  as  tending  to  show  that  the  religious  consciousness, 
universal  in  our  day,  was  also  an  endowment  of  the  earliest 
and  most  uninstructed  type  of  man. 

The  man  of  the  Stone  Age  was  not,  therefore,  as  some 
have  asserted,  a  sort  of  perfected  monkey.  He  had  the 
structure  of  a  man;  without  doubt,  he  was  capable  of 
speech ;  he  supplied  his  wants  with  a  kind  of  skill  which 
became  improved  and  educated  by  experience — a  charac- 
teristic only  of  intelligence ;  he  admired  beauty ;  he  mani- 
fested a  perception  of  the  ideal ;  his  thoughts  strayed  for- 
ward into  another  world?  and,  with  his  other  religious  sen- 
timents, he  undoubtedly  felt  a  vague,  strange  sense  of  a 
superintending  Intelligence  and  a  moral  Governor. 

Does  the  unwritten  history  of  this  race  reach  back  to  an 
antiquity  incompatible  with  prevalent  views  upon  the  age 
of  man  ?  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  enemies  of  Revelation 
have  sought  materials  for  the  use  of  unbelievers.  They 
have  sought  in  vain.  There  is  more  in  the  history  of  pri- 
meval man  that  confirms  our  Scriptures  than  there  is  of 
conflict  with  them.  We  have  popularly  held  the  race  to 
be  about  six  thousand  years  old ;  but  our  researches  show 
that  man  lived  with  the  bear,  hyena,  mammoth,  and  other 
animals  now  extinct,  and  some  of  which  became  extinct  on 
the  decline  of  the  glacial  epoch.  It  is  not  claimed  that 
man  lived  before  the  glacial  epoch,  and  the  evidences  of 
his  contemporaneous  existence  with  the  reign  of  ice  have 
been  shown  to  be  fallacious.  The  remains  of  man  reputed 
to  have  been  found  in  glacial  drift  of  the  valley  of  the 
Somme  are  in  truth  buried  in  deposits  of  much  later  date, 
as  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Andrews,  of  Chicago,  as  well  as 
by  others.*     Man  had  no  place  till  after  the  reign  of  ice 

*  For  an  elaborate  and  accessible  paper  on  the  "Amiens  gravel, "\>y 
Alfred  Tylor,  see  Amer.  Journ.  of  Science  and  Art  [2],  Nov.,  1868,  cited 
from  the  Quart.  Jour,  of  the  Geolog.  Society  of  London  for  May,  1867. 


368      •  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

But  it  has  been  imagined  that  the  close  of  the  reign  of  ice 
dates  back  perhaps  a  hundred  thousand  years.  There  is 
no  evidence  of  this.  The  cone  of  drift  materials  accumu- 
lated at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiniere,  in  which  have  been  found 
human  remains,  was  estimated  by  Morlot  to  be  from  96,000 
to  143,000  years  old;  but  Dr.  Andrews  has  exposed  a  curi- 
ous arithmetical  blunder,  the  correction  of  which  reduces 
the  time  to  within  five  thousand  years.  [See  Appendix, 
Note  XL,  p.  445.]  We  have  no  rule  for  the  measurement 
of  post-tertiary  time  which  necessitates  the  admission  of  so 
high  antiquity  to  our  race.  If  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  think  of  the  extinction  of  the  cave-bear  as  dating  back 
to  high  antiquity,  we  now  discover  that  he  lived  with  man, 
and  the  reindeer,  and  other  animals  which  still  survive. 
The  existence  of  even  the  cave-bear  may  not  have  been  so 
very  remote.  What  are  the  reasons  assigned  for  the  prev- 
alent opinion  that  it  was  many  ages  ago  that  the  glaciers 
began  to  disappear  from  Europe?  Simply  the  existence 
at  that  time  of  quadrupeds  now  extinct,  together  with  the 
presumption,  unsupported,  as  it  seems,  by  the  facts,  that  no 
animals  have  coexisted  with  man  except  those  of  the  recent 
fauna.  The  fact  is,  that  we  come  ourselves  upon  the  earth 
in  time  to  witness  the  retreat  of  the  glaciers.  They  still 
linger  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps,  and  along  the  northern 
shores  of  Europe  and  Asia,  while  the  disappearance  of  an- 
imals once  contemporaries  of  man  is  still  continuing.  Not 
only  did  contemporaries  of  man  become  extinct  during  the 
Age  of  Stone ;  some  survived  to  the  twelfth,  fourteenth, 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  as  already  stated;  the  Moa  of  New 
Zealand,  and  the  ^Epiornis  of  Madagascar,  have  become 
extinct  within  the  epoch  of  tradition,  as  indeed  has  the 
Mammoth  of  North  America ;  the  Dodo  of  Mauritius  dis- 
appeared  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  the  Great  Auk  of 
the  arctic  regions  has  not  been  seen  for  half  a  century ; 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  369 

and  every  one  must  be  convinced  that  the  beaver,  elk,  pan- 
ther, buffalo,  and  other  quadrupeds  of  North  America  are 
approaching  extinction  by  perceptible  steps.  The  fact  is, 
we  are  not  so  far  out  of  the  dust,  and  chaos,  and  barbarism 
of  antiquity  as  we  had  supposed.  The  very  beginnings  of 
our  race  are  still  almost  in  sight.  Geological  events  which, 
from  the  force  of  habit  in  considering  geological  events,  we 
had  imagined  to  be  located  far  back  in  the  history  of 
things,  are  found  to  have  transpired  at  our  very  doors. 
Our  own  race  has  witnessed  the  dissolution  of  those  conti- 
nental glaciers  which  we  have  so  long  talked  of  as  inci- 
dents of  pre-Adamic  history.  Our  own  race  has  witnessed 
the  submergence  of  Southern  Europe ;  the  detachment  of 
the  British  Islands  and  Scandinavia  from  the  continent ; 
the  wanderings  of  the  great  rivers  of  Eastern  Asia ;  the 
submergence  of  thousands  of  square  miles  of  the  coast  of 
China,  so  that  the  seats  of  ancient  capitals  are  now  rocky 
islets  far  at  sea ;  the  emergence  of  the  ancient  country  of 
Lectonia ;  the  drainage  of  the  vast  lake  which  once  over- 
spread the  prairies  of  Illinois ;  the  alternations  of  forests, 
and  many  other  events  which  we  once  associated  with  high 
antiquity.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Hooker  and  Gray  that  the 
Falkland  Islands,  and  others  in  the  vicinity,  have  formed  a 
part  of  the  continent  of  South  America  during  recent  times, 
and  that  during  this  connection  they  acquired  the  conti- 
nental fauna  and  flora.  The  Straits  of  Behring  may  even 
have  been  cut  through  since  the  early  migrations  of  man 
and  his  contemporaries,  the  mammoth  and  reindeer ;  as  in 
some  distant  future  age  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  which  now 
connects  North  and  South  America,  may  become  a  strait 
separating  them.  There  is  no  more  reason  in  this  day  than 
fifty  years  ago  to  claim  a  hundred  thousand  years  for  the 
past  duration  of  our  race. 

I  can  not  refrain  from  noting  the  peculiar  relief  which 


370  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  mind  experiences  in  discovering  the  means  to  seize  and 
comprehend  some  of  the  oppressively  vast  cycles  which  ge- 
ology discloses.  Here  is  a  geological  age — the  Post-Ter- 
tiary Age — unfinished,  it  is  true — which  we  almost  possess 
the  means  of  measuring.  The  life  of  our  race  reaches  back 
beyond  grand  geological  events.  We  have  some  notion, 
from  the  progress  which  our  race  has  made  during  the  pe- 
riod of  written  history,  what  must  have  been  the  duration 
of  its  infantile  tutelage.  Nay,  the  records  of  the  Somme 
and  the  Tiniere,  as  we  now  decipher  them,  afford  us  a  com- 
mon measure  of  the  age  of  man  and  the  duration  of  the 
Post-Tertiary.  The  vast  changes  that  have  transpired 
upon  the  coast  of  China,  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  other  parts  of  the  world,  since  man  has  been  a  beholder 
of  geological  history,  seem  to  carry  us  back  into  the  midst 
of  the  grand  events  which  we  have  so  solemnly  and  won- 
deringly  contemplated  from  our  seeming  distance.  Ttae 
geological  intervals,  after  all,  are  appreciably  finite.  The 
discovery  affords  a  sensible  relief  to  the  mind  so  long  op- 
pressed by  the  contemplation  of  cycles  which  lose  them- 
selves in  the  haze  of  eternity. 

One  farther  thought  crowds  itself  into  the  company  of 
these  reflections.  It  is  a  thought  of  the  growing  perfec- 
tion and  exaltation  of  our  race.  How  have  we  strug- 
gled through  many  ages,  upward  from  companionship  with 
beasts,  from  clothing  of  skins  or  bark,  houses  of  caves,  im- 
plements of  chips  of  flint,  a  vague  consciousness  of  a  Supe- 
rior Being — like  the  polyps'  sense  of  light  felt  through  all 
its  body — through  all  the  grades  of  pupilage,  all  the  de- 
grees of  civilization,  all  the  heights  of  mental  and  moral 
exaltation  up  to  man  as  he  now  is !  What  a  picture  of 
progress  is  here!  How  abject  once — how  exalted,  how 
spiritualized,  how  God-like  now  !  Is  not  man  approaching 
nearer  to  God  ?    How  vastly  less  of  the  brute— how  infi- 


PRIMEVAL  MAN.  371 

nitely  more  of  the  spiritual !  Once  he  contented  himself 
to  capture  prey  sufficient  for  food,  as  the  bear  and  the  tiger 
did  in  whose  company  he  lived.  But — oh,  how  uncon- 
scious of  his  powers  !  he  held  even  then  the  spark  of  divin- 
ity which  the  bear  and  the  tiger  had  not,  and  he  has  risen, 
while  they  grovel  on  the  plane  from  which  he  sprang. 
From  age  to  age  he  has  learned  to  commune  more  and 
more  with  the  unseen — the  ideal — the  good  and  the  true. 
He  has  made  achievements  which  were  once  beyond  the 
reach  of  dreams.  Steam,  electricity — what  miracles  do 
they  not  summon  into  mind  ?  What  does  a  retrospect  of 
fifty  years  disclose?  And  is  not  man  even  yet  on  the 
march  of  improvement  ?  What  does  a  forward  glance  of 
fifty  years  unfold  to  imagination  ?  What  now  irresolvable 
mysteries  may  not  be  explained  in  the  school-books  of 
our  grandchildren?  There  is  nothing  which  it  is  rever- 
ent to  pronounce  inscrutable  among  the  works  of  God.  It 
remains  for  us  to  penetrate  the  world  of  invisible  things. 
We  have  already  sundry  rumors  and  pretences — shadows 
cast  before,  perhaps — but  as  yet  unsatisfactory  and  unin- 
telligible, and,  above  all,  unreduced  to  a  philosophy.  There 
must  be  a  substratum  that  has  not  yet  been  sounded  lying 
beneath  the  confused  and  apparently  capricious  phenomena 
o*f  clairvoyance,  mesmerism,  dreams,  and  spiritual  manifes- 
tations. With  much  imposition,  there  is  much  which  can 
not  be  scientifically  ignored.  It  remains  to  resolve  the 
mystery  of  these  sporadic  phenomena — to  reduce  them  to 
law,  and  to  open  under  tile  law  some  regular  and  intelligi- 
ble intercourse  with  the  unseen  world.  The  unseen  world 
is  destined  to  become  like  a  newly  discovered  continent. 
We  shall  visit  it — we  shall  hold  communion  with  it — we 
shall  wonder  how  so  many  thousand  years  could  have 
passed  without  our  being  introduced  to  it.  We  shall  learn 
of  other  modes  of  existence — intermediate,  perhaps,  between 


372  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

body  and  spirit — having  the  forms  and  limitation  in  space 
peculiar  to  matter,  with  the  penetrability  and  invisibility 
of  spirit.  And  who  can  say  that  we  may  not  yet  obtain 
such  knowledge  of  the  modes  of  existence  of  other  bodies 
as  to  discover  the  means  of  rendering  them  visible  to  our 
bodily  eyes,  as  we  now  hold  conversation  with  a  friend 
upon  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  or  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  or 
fly  with  the  superhuman  velocity  of  the  wind  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Then  may  we  not  at  last 
gaze  upon  the  "spiritual  bodies"  in  which  our  departed 
friends  reside,  and  discover  the  means  of  listening  to  their 
spirit  voices,  and  join  hands  consciously  with  the  heavenly 
host  ?  Oh,  who  can  say  what  these  exhaustless  and  illim- 
itable powers  of  the  noble  soul  of  man  may  not  accom- 
plish? Does  the  reader  smile?  I  believe  these  are  the  sug- 
gestions more  of  philosophy  than  of  fancy.  Does  he  say 
it  is  only  a  dream  of  impossibilities  ?  He  assumes  that  he 
knows  every  thing  which  the  infinite  Intelligence  can  fath- 
om. To  fetter  the  human  soul  with  assumed  impossibilities 
is  impiety.  The  bird  which  would  soar  first  looks  upward. 
The  soul  never  attains  that  which  it  does  not  strive  for.  If 
we  would  commune  consciously  with  the  unseen  world  we 
must  have  both  faith  and  works.  In  reference  to  the  per- 
fectibility and  exaltation  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  na- 
ture of  man,  let  no  one  say  "  impossible." 


WILL  THERE  BE  AN  ANIMAL  SUPERIOR  TO  MAN?  373 


CHAPTER  XXXm. 

WILL  THEEE    BE    AN   ANIMAL    SUPERIOR   TO   MAN? 

TTE  that  has  glanced  over  the  long  line  of  organic  his- 
-"-- *~  tory,  and  observed  how  the  ascent  from  the  sea-weed 
to  man  has  been  effected,  step  by  step,  in  regular  succession, 
can  not  fail  to  start  the  inquiry, "  Is  man  destined  to  be 
the  last  term  of  this  series  of  improving  types  ?"  I  reply 
that,  while  this  is  peculiarly  a  question  to  be  answered  by 
Revelation,  science  affords  some  intimations  which  tend  to 
assure  us  in  the  possession  of  the  dignity  which  we  now 
enjoy  as  the  archonts  of  terrestrial  existence. 

In  the  first  place,  all  geological  preparations  and  ideas 
converge  in  man.  The  world  seems  to  have  been  designed 
with  the  view  of  stimulating  to  activity  the  powers  of  a 
thinking  being.  The  universe  is  a  rational  product ;  and 
every  department  of  it,  and  every  isolated  object,  sustains 
an  intelligible  relation  to  other  parts  and  objects.  We  are 
not  left  to  infer,  or  even  to  know,  that  intelligent  design  is 
locked  up  in  the  secret  plans  of  creation ;  but  what  is  more 
suggestive,  as  well  as  more  satisfactory,  is  the  fact  that 
this  intelligence  is  patent  before  our  eyes,  so  that  we  read, 
as  it  were,  a  revelation  of  the  thought  embodied  in  the 
works  of  the  visible  universe.  And  much  of  that  which  is 
not  at  once  manifest  yields  to  investigation,  while  a  stim- 
ulus to  investigation  is  found  in  the  hints  and  suggestions 
which  Nature  seems  intentionally  to  have  dropped  along 
the  pathway  of  him  who  follows  the  beckoning  of  his 
thoughts.  Not  only  were  these  germs  of  thought  planted 
from  time  to  time  during  the  whole  progress  of  the  past 


374  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

creation ;  and  not  only  is  man  the  first  creature  capable  of 
responding  to  the  stimuli  to  mental  activity,  but  more ; 
this  mentality,  while  it  differs  qualitatively  from  the  high- 
est endowments  of  the  lower  animals,  is  in  itself  the  high- 
est possible  grade  of  endowments.  It  is  qualitatively  iden- 
tical with  that  infinite  Intelligence  whose  presence  and  su- 
premacy are  recognized  throughout  the  universe.  It  is  a 
fair  presumption  that  when  the  course  of  animalization  has 
attained  the  point  toward  which  all  these  intellectual  adap- 
tations converge,  a  point  is  reached  which  will  not  be 
passed  except  under  a  different  general  scheme. 

Similar  remarks  apply  to  the  co-ordination  existing  be- 
tween the  material  world  and  the  idea  of  the  beautiful  in 
man.  The  beauty  and  sublimity  of  Nature  have  no  rela- 
tion to  any  other  creature.  Man  is  the  consummation  of  a 
dualism.  While  the  beautiful  implies  man,  it  excludes  his 
successor.  No  endowment  beyond  or  higher  than  a  re- 
sponse to  the  provisions  of  Nature  is  possible. 

The  beneficent  provisions  of  the  earth's  crust  not  only 
prophesy  man,  but  they  reach  their  finality  in  man.  It 
was  only  for  human  uses  that  the  coal  was  treasured  in  the 
recesses  of  the  earth ;  for  human  uses  alone  the  mountains 
hava  lifted  up  their  burdens  of  iron ;  for  human  uses  only 
the  grandest  movements  of  geological  history  elaborated 
and  distributed  a  soil.  It  is  only  for  man  that  the  forests 
yield  their  abundant  supplies  of  timber  and  fuel.  For  man 
the  edible  and  medicinal  vegetables  were  provided.  For 
man  the  natures  of  the  domestic  animals  were  moulded ; 
and  their  domestic  attachments  are  directed  to  no  other 
being. 

The  last  geological  revolution  produced  results  of  a  gen- 
eral rather  than  a  local  character.  During  the  Paleozoic, 
Mesozoic,  and  earlier  Cenozoic  ages,  the  action  of  geological 
agencies  had  been  especially  developed  along  belts  parallel 


WILL  THERE  BE  AN  ANIMAL  SUPERIOR  TO  MAN?  375 

to  the  main  bodies  of  land.  In  the  glacial  epoch,  however, 
a  phenomenon  occurred  which,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  un- 
precedented in  its  universality.  The  whole  northern  por- 
tion of  both  continents  was  covered  by  glaciers,  whose  ef- 
fects were  felt  in  America  to  the  Ohio  River,  and  whose 
debris  were  borne,  in  the  next  epoch,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
This  sudden  extension  of  the  range  of  geological  activity 
was  something  paralleled  by  the  release  of  the  human  spe- 
cies from  those  restraints  which  confined  all  preceding  an- 
imals within  narrow  limits,  and  constituted,  like  that,  an 
indication  that  a  full  pause  had  been  reached  in  continent- 
al preparations — as  when  the  sculptor,  after  having  devel- 
oped singly,  with  time  and  care,  the  individual  features 
of  his  work,  subjects  it  finally  to  that  general  treatment 
which  imparts  the  smooth  and  finished  surface. 

Lastly,  it  may  be  added  that  vertebrate  development 
both  points  toward  man  and  attains  its  consummation  in 
man.  The  earliest  fish  which  moved  in  the  waters  of  the 
Paleozoic  seas  embodied,  in  its  osteological  organization,  a 
prophecy  of  man ;  the  Mesozoic  reptile  still  pointed  onward 
toward  man ;  the  Tertiary  monkeys  were  a  higher  summit 
of  vertebrate  organization  from  which  the  yet  higher  Alp 
of  human  structure  was  still  pointed  to,  illumined  by  the 
rising  dawn  of  the  modern  world.  In  the  skeleton  of  man 
we  have,  at  last,  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecies  of  ages. 

Man  stands  in  the  focus  of  all  the  conceptions  embodied 
in  past  history.  We  are  as  little  authorized  to  allow  that 
the  course  *of  development  is  destined  to  advance  beyond 
him,  as  to  deny  that  it  has  furnished  intimations,  in  all 
ages,  that  it  was  destined  to  reach  to  him. 

Consider,  in  the  second  place,  man's  superiority  over  the 
brutes.  Among  the  myriads  of  animals  which  populated 
the  earth  during  the  cycles  of  geological  history,  suprem- 
acy was  the  reward  only  of  superior  force.     Man  gains  su- 


376 


/SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


premacy  through  his  intellect.  Brutes  dominate  through 
the  physical  forces  belonging  to  matter ;  man,  through  the 
immaterial  forces  which  are  the  attributes  of  Deity. 

The  chasm  which  separates  the  intelligence  of  man  from 
that  of  the  brutes  is  broad.  It  is  not  simply  a  step  in  the 
easy  gradations  observed  among  the  brutes  themselves ;  it 
is  a  break  in  the  chain  of  gradations.  Even  if  not  qualita- 
tively superior  to  that  of  brutes,  its  sudden  expansion  is  so 
great  that  its  sphere  of  activity  creates  a  new  quality  in 
the  being.  Man  is  the  first  being  in  'all  the  history  of  the 
world  that  could  contemplate  creation,  and  abstract  the  in- 
telligence displayed  in  it,  and  experience  a  glow  of  satisfac- 
tion in  attaining  to  the  thoughts  first  conceived  in  the  mind 
of  the  Omniscient.  Man  is  the  first  animal  capable  of  con- 
templating Deity.  In  these  exalted  endowments  not  only 
does  he  excel  the  brutes,  but  he  excels  them  in  so  vast  a 
degree  as  to  suggest  the  belief  that  the  gradations  of  ani- 
mal existence  had  been  concluded,  and  Nature  had  reached 
a  full  pause.  The  material  part — the  frame- work — of  ani- 
mality  had  been  perfected  by  slow  gradations ;  and  now, 
on  the  creation  of  man,  Nature  superadded  an  unprece- 
dented endowment — a  spiritual  organization  which  makes 
man  both  a  prince  and  a  masterpiece  in  creation. 

When  we  speak  of  man's  moral  nature  we  touch  a  sub- 
ject which  recalls  all  that  has  just  been  said  of  his  intel- 
lect, and  affirms  it  with  redoubled  emphasis.  There  are 
reasons  for  believing  that  this  endowment  differs  in  kind 
from  any  thing  in  the  nature  of  the  brute.  This,  to  the 
ability  to  understand  God,  adds  the  ability  to  sympathize 
in  his  moral  attributes,  and  to  enter  into  moral  relations 
with  him  and  with  humanity.  Man  stands  in  contact  with 
God.  A  farther  approximation  is  impossible.  He  must  be 
the  limit,  as  he  is  the  existing  culmination  of  organic  life. 

These  various  considerations,  with  others,  seem  to  teach 


WILL  THERE  BE  AN  ANIMAL  SUPERIOR  TO  MAN?  377 

that  the  column  of  organic  succession  is  complete  in  man. 
The  lower  forms,  gradually  and  regularly  ascending  from 
base  to  summit,  constitute  the  shaft  of  the  column ;  but  in 
man  we  have  a  sudden  expansion,  an  ornateness  of  finish, 
an  incorporation  of  new  ideas,  which  designate  him  as  the 
capital  and  completion  of  the  grand  column  of  organic  ex- 
istence. 

Consider,  in  the  third  place,  man's  unlimited  geograph- 
ical range.  When  the  first  animals  were  introduced  upon 
the  earth,  they  found  the  ocean  encompassing  it  on  every 
side,  and  creating  a  uniformity  of  physical  conditions  which 
enabled  them  to  range  through  every  latitude  and  longi- 
tude. In  later  ages,  as  the  continents,  with  their  mountain 
ranges,  became  differentiated  from  the  terrestrial  mass,  and 
diverse  climates  were  called  into  existence,  we  find  that 
animals  were  restricted  to  successively  narrower  limits. 
Not  only  did  the  growing  differentiation  of  the  different 
regions  of  the  earth  lead  toward  the  restriction  of  the 
faunas,  but  there  is  something  in  higher  organisms  them- 
selves which  specializes  them  in  their  adaptations,  and  un- 
fits them  for  so  wide  a  range,  even  with  external  conditions 
unchanged.  Thus,  as  animal  life  advanced  upward,  it  be- 
came more  narrowed  in  the  range  of  its  species.  The  spe- 
cies in  possession  of  the  earth  immediately  previous  to  man 
were  more  restricted  than  any  of  their  predecessors.  It 
would  certainly  be  expected  from  all  these  analogies  that 
man,  on  his  appearance,  would  be  limited  to  the  narrowest 
bounds  of  all.  What  is  the  fact  ?  Man  overleaps  all  bar- 
riers. Climates,  mountains,  oceans,  deserts,  form  no  imped- 
iments to  his  migration.  He,  the  first  of  all  animals,  has 
literally  extended  over  the  whole  earth,  and  fulfilled  the 
command  to  take  possession,  to  use,  and  to  enjoy.  What 
does  this  signify,  if  not  that  man  is  the  completion  of  the 
series  ?    Animal  existence,  first  narrowed  to  the  smallest 


3^8  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

limits  in  its  specific  range,  then  suddenly  expanded  to  the 
widest.  Man  occupies  the  whole  earth ;  he  is  not  only  the 
finishing  stroke,  but  he  excludes  a  successor. 

'Consider,  lastly,  man's  erect  attitude.  When  the  fish,  the 
earliest  representative  of  the  type  which  embraces  man, 
was  introduced  into  the  waters  of  the  Devonian  seas,  the 
vertebral  axis  was  hung  in  a  horizontal  position,  and  the 
animal  was  not  endowed  with  even  the  power  to  raise  the 
head  by  bending  the  neck.  Many  of  the  Carboniferous 
fishes  acquired  this  power,  but  they  remained  suspended 
in  the  element  of  lowest  vital  relations.  The  Triassic  and 
Jurassic  Enaliosaurs,  while  they  continued  to  inhabit  the 
water,  breathed  the  air,  and  held  the  head  habitually  a  lit- 
tle elevated.  The  Crocodilians  to  these  endowments  added 
the  power  to  crawl  upon  the  ground.  The  Deinosaurs  of 
the  Cretaceous  Age  walked  upon  the  land  with  the  body 
elevated  above  the  ground,  but  the  head  remaining  nearly 
horizontal.  The  birds  assumed  an  oblique  position  of  the 
spinal  axis ;  and  most  of  the  Tertiary  mammals,  which  fol- 
lowed them,  could  carry  their  attitudes  from  the  horizontal 
to  the  semi-erect.  The  higher  monkeys  lived  normally  in 
a  sub-erect  position,  but  still  supporting  themselves  by  the 
four  extremities.  Man  first  and  alone  assumed  a  perpen- 
dicular attitude,  and  turned  his  countenance  toward  heav- 
en, and  talked  with  the  Being  who  formed  him. 

"  Prona  cum  spectent  animalia  caetera  terrain, 
Os  homini  sublime  dedit ;  coelumque  tueri 
Jussit,  et  erectos  ad  sidera  tollere  vultus." 

It  is  evident  no  farther  progress  can  be  made  in  this  di- 
rection. The  elevation  of  the  spinal  axis  has  reached  a 
mathematical  limit ;  the  consummation  of  organic  exalta- 
tion is  attained. 

These  various  considerations  concur  in  justifying  the  as- 


WILL  THERE  BE  AN  ANIMAL  SUPERIOR  TO  MAN?  379 

sumption  that  the  Author  of  Nature  regards  his  work  as 
completed.  The  universal  belief  of  the  Christian  world, 
therefore,  that  the  termination  of  the  existence  of  the  hu- 
man race  will  mark  the  consummation  of  the  history  of 
the  present  order  of  things,  seems  to  be  founded  equally 
in  our  mental  constitution  and  in  the  philosophy  of  the 
material  creation. 


380 


SKETCHES    OF   CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

POPULAR    BELIEFS    IX    PERIODICAL    CATASTROPHES    TO    THE 
UNIVERSE. 

WHENCE  come  we,  and  whither  are  we  tending? 
Whence  this  ponderous  globe  which  we  inhabit? 
What  vicissitudes  has  it  undergone?  What  is  its  final 
destination  ?  And  when  the  drama  of  the  world  is  closed, 
what  then  ?  Whence  this  magnificent  system  of  a  visible 
universe  ?  and  of  what  inscrutable  purposes  does  it  form  a 
part  ?  What  is  that  which  is  first  of  all — the  cause  of  all 
— self-existent,  uncreated,  without  beginning  and  without 
end? 

These  are  grand  problems — the  most  stupendous  with 
which  the  human  mind  can  grapple.  We  can  not  presume 
to  offer  their  final  solution,  but  we  may  venture  to  inquire 
what  light  is  thrown  upon  their  solution  by  the  converging 
rays  of  all  the  sciences. 

These  are  problems  which  have  engaged  the  attention  of 
thoughtful  minds  in  every  age  of  the  world.  If  we  look 
into  the  pages  of  ancient  philosophy,  we  find  it  every  where 
occupied  with  inquiries  into  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the 
universe — the  different  orders  or  kinds  of  existence — the 
absolute  existence,  on  which  all  other  being  depends — the 
nature  of  Deity  and  of  man,  and  their  relations  to  each 
other  and  to  other  grades  of  existence.  These  have  been 
the  great,  ever-present,  obtrusive  mysteries  with  which  the 
human  mind  has  always  been  grappling.  On  the  shores 
of  classic  Greece  we  find  Thales,  Pythagoras,  Zeno,  Epicu- 
rus, Plato,  and  a  long  and  brilliant  line  of  thinkers  ponder- 


POPULAR  BELIEFS,  ETC.  381 

ing  over  the  problems  of  mind  and  matter.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Mediterranean  we  hear  the  same  interrogatories 
resounding  from  the  region  of  civilization's  dawn,  in  Egypt, 
and  in  far-off  India  and  China  other  races  have  found  them- 
selves confronted  by  the  self-same  mysteries,  and,  with 
equal  courage,  have  demanded  from  the  depths  of  Nature 
their  solution.  These  sublime  questions  have  stared  with 
equal  steadiness  in  the  face  of  Greek,  Egyptian,  Phoenician, 
Chaldaean,  Jew,  Persian,  Arabian,  and  Hindoo.  Perennial 
problems,  omnipresent  as  mind  itself,  they  have  reappeared 
upon  American  shores ;  and  we  find  that  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Aztecs  yield  us  a  cosmogony  and  a  theogony  no  less 
sublime  than  those  of  India,  Persia,  and  Greece. 

Problems  which,  in  all  ages,  have  stood  foremost  in  the 
conflict  of  the  human  mind  with  the  vast  unknown,  would 
mock  at  the  attempt  to  grapple  with  them  in  the  brief 
compass  of  a  chapter  or  two ;  but  we  can  not  pass  them 
by  without  taking  a  few  bearings  upon  their  salient  points. 
Waiving  entirely  the  questions  which  arise  in  reference  to 
moral  and  intelligent  existences,  let  us  attempt  to  bring 
together  a  body  of  considerations  bearing  upon  the  doc- 
.  trine  of  periodical  destructions  and  renovations  in  the  ma- 
terial universe.  It  will  thus,  I  think,  be  made  W>  appear 
that  the  existing  order  of  things  is  not  eternal,  and  that  a 
crisis  is  approaching  which  will  demand  the  interposition 
of  a  power  superior  to  Nature. 

Dr.  Reid,  the  Scottish  metaphysician,  asserts  that  God 
has  implanted  in  the  mind  of  man  an  original  principle  by 
which  he  believes  in  and  expects  the  continuance  of  the 
course  of  Nature.  This,  evidently,  is  an  error,  since  our 
expectation  of  the  continued  recurrence  of  natural  phenom- 
ena in  the  same  order  is  based  upon  our  past  experience, 
and  is,  consequently,  an  induction  instead  of  a  necessary 
truth.    The  fact  is,  that  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  and  among 


382  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

every  people  who  have  attained  to  a  philosophic  system, 
the  contrary  belief  has  been  prevalent.  The  existing  order 
of  Nature  has  been  regarded  as  temporary,  and  the  flow  of 
terrestrial  and  even  of  cosmical  events  has  been  conceived 
as  destined  to  be  broken  up  by  universal  revolutions. 

The  Chaldeans,  according  to  Berosus,  held  that  the  world 
is  periodically  destroyed  by  deluges  and  conflagrations. 
The  deluges  they  believed  to  result  from  a  great  conjunc- 
tion of  the  planets  in  the  constellation  Capricorn,  and  the 
conflagrations  from  a  similar  conjunction  in  the  constella- 
tion Cancer.  Some  of  the  Christian  fathers  adopted  these 
views.  The  Chaldeans  also  calculated  the  end  of  the  world 
from  the  period  occupied  in  the  retrograde  movement  of 
the  stars  through  one  complete  circumference — a  phenom- 
enon due  to  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  and  accom- 
plished, as  modern  science  has  shown,  in  a  period  of  21,000 
to  26,000  years. 

The  Chaldean  philosophers  had  also  their  Annus  Magnus, 
or  Great  Year,  at  the  end  of  which  the  present  terrestrial 
and  cosmical  order  would  be  brought  to  a  termination  by 
an  ordeal  of  fire,  after  which  it  would  be  again  renewed. 

The  ancient  Scythians,  in  their  dispute  with  the  Egyp-, 
tians  in  rwerence  to  the  relative  antiquity  of  their  respect- 
ive nations,  reminded  them  that  the  world  undergoes  revo- 
lutions both  by  fire  and  water. 

The  Egyptians,  according  to  Plato,  fancied  that  the  heav- 
ens and  earth  originated  in  a  promiscuous  pulp.  From  this 
the  elements  separated  of  their  own  accord;  fire  sprang 
from  the  upper  regions;  the  air  began  to  move.  The 
warmth  of  the  sun  bred  living  creatures  innumerable  in 
the  plastic  mud,  and  these,  according  to  the  predominance 
of  the  various  elements,  betook  themselves  to  the  air,  the 
water,  or  the  solid  land.  Man  was  generated  from  the 
slime  of  the  river  Nile.     By  a  gradual  improvement  of  the 


POPULAR  BELIEFS,  ETC.  383 

lower  creatures,  and  a  gradual  perfection  of  the  globe,  the 
world  became  what  the  Egyptian  found  it,  and  was  des- 
tined to  flourish  through  an  interval  of  time  expressed  by 
their  Annus  Magnus,  or  great  year — a  cycle  composed  (as 
with  the  Chaldeans)  of  the  revolutions  of  the  sun,  moon, 
and  planets,  and  terminating  when  these  return  together  to 
the  same  sign  whence  they  were  supposed  to  have  set  out. 
The  duration  of  this  great  cycle,  according  to  Orpheus,  was 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  years ;  according  to  oth- 
ers it  was  three  hundred  thousand;  and  by  Cassander  it 
was  taken  at  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  years.  At 
the  end  of  each  great  year  or  cycle  the  world  was  supposed 
to  be  subjected  to  the  destructive  ordeal  of  fire  or  water, 
by  which  it  was  renovated,  to  become  the  abode  of  a  re- 
generated race  of  men. 

The  Hindoo  cosmogony,  which  was  perhaps  the  germ  of 
all  that  was  taught  by  the  Western  nations,  gives  promi- 
nence to  the  doctrine  of  secular  catastrophes  and  renova- 
tions. "  The  First  Sole  Cause,"  say  the  Institutes  of  Menu, 
"  thinks  within  himself,  *  I  will  create  worlds.' "  Water  is 
then  brought  into  being,  over  the  surface  of  which  moves 
Brahma,  the  Creator.  Brahma  first  effects  the  emergence 
of  the  land  from  the  waters,  and  the  creation  of  the  firma- 
ment. He  then  vivifies  the  earth,  in  succession,  with  plants, 
animals,  celestial  creatures,  and  man.  The  sun  springs 
from  his  eye,  the  air  from  his  ear,  the  fire  from  his  mouth. 
From  his  mouth,  his  arm,  his  thigh,  his  foot,  proceed  the 
founders  of  the  chief  Hindoo  castes.  Brahma,  having  ac- 
complished his  task, "  changes  the  time  of  energy  for  the 
hour  of  repose."  He  sleeps  during  4320  millions  of  years 
— a  day  of  Brahma — at  the  end  of  which  time  the  world  is 
destroyed  by  fire.  The  flames  are  at  length  quenched  by 
the  fall  of  incessant  rains  for  a  hundred  years,  and  the 
waters,  overspreading  the  earth,  fill  the  middle  region  and 


384  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

inundate  heaven.  The  world  is  enveloped  in  darkness,  and 
the  universe  is  reduced  to  one  vast  ocean.  The  breath  of 
Vishnu  next  becomes  a  strong  wind  by  which  the  clouds 
are  dispersed,  and  the  Deity  then  appears  in  the  form,  of 
Brahma  reposing  on  his  serpent  couch  upon  the  deep.  As 
soon  as  he  awakes  the  world  is  renewed,  to  be  again  de- 
stroyed and  again  renovated  after  each  kalpa,  or  day  cf 
Brahma's  existence.  "  For  there  are  creations  and  destruc- 
tions of  worlds  innumerable."  At  the  end,  however,  of  a 
hundred  years,  each  consisting  of  360  kalpas,  and  each 
kalpa  of  4320  millions  of  our  years,  Brahma  himself,  and 
all  things  with  him,  will  cease  to  exist. 

Among  the  Jews  there  has  been  extant,  from  time  im- 
memorial, a  prophecy  that  the  world  was  destined  to  en- 
dure 6000  years— 2000  before  the  Flood,  2000  under  the 
Law,  and  2000  under  the  Messiah.  This  belief  is  cordially 
accepted  and  strongly  insisted  upon  by  a  majority  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

From  the  East  the  doctrine  of  periodical  revolutions 
found  its  way,  with  the  migrations  of  men,  into  Europe. 
The  Persians,  the  Chaldeans,  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Phoe- 
nicians adopted  it  in  Western  Asia  and  in  Africa,  while  the 
"  Orphic  Hymns"  afford  us  the  earliest  germination  of  the 
Eastern  faith  in  Greece.  Orpheus  and  Menander,  who 
flourished  in  the  very  twilight  of  Greek  poetry  and  civili- 
zation, and  who  undoubtedly  derived  their  philosophy  from 
the  Egyptians,  reproduce  the  myth  of  the  Annus  Magnus, 
and  teach  that  the  universe  is  destined  to  be  dissolved  on 
the  completion  of  this  cycle.  Like  the  Indians  and  Jews, 
the  authors  of  the  Orphic  Hymns  assigned  a  definite  dura- 
tion to  the  Annus  Magnus,  as  has  been  already  stated. 

In  the  Sibylline  Books,  whose  origin  dates  back,  perhaps, 
1300  years  before  our  era,  this  ancient  faith  is  shadowed 
forth  in  another  guise.     The  world  is  destined  to  endure 


POPULAR  BELIEFS,  ETC.  385 

ten  ages,  the  first  of  which  is  the  Golden  Age.  After  a  ren- 
ovation by  fire  the  Golden  Age  will  return,  when,  accord- 
ing to  the  authority  of  Virgil,  the  serpent  will  perish;  the 
earth  will  produce  her  crops  spontaneously ;  the  kid  will 
no  longer  fear  the  lion ;  the  grape  will  be  borne  upon  the 
thorn-bush,  and  scarlet,  and  yellow,  and  royal  purple  will 
become  the  native  colors  of  the  woolly  fleece. 

* '  Ipsse  lacte  domum  referent  distenta  capellse 
Ubera ;  nee  magnos  metuent  armenta  leones. 
Ipsa  tibi  blandos  fundent  cunabula  flores ; 
Occidet  et  serpens,  et  fallax  herba  veneni 
Occidet ;  Assyrium  vulgo  nascetur  amomum. 
***** 

Molli  paulatim  flavescet  campus  arista, 
Incultisque  rubens  pendebit  sentibus  uva, 
Et  durae  quercus  sudabunt  roscida  mella." 

The  Stoics,  who  derived  the  doctrine  from  the  Phoeni- 
cians, and  were  its  principal  advocates  among  the  Greeks, 
held  that  the  world  would  be  destroyed  by  a  conflagra- 
tion. This  they  thought  would  occur  "  when  the  sun  and 
stars  shall  have  drunk  up  the  sea."  "Yes,"  says  quaint  old 
Thomas  Burnet, "  but  how  long  shall  they  be  a  drinking 
it?"  The  Stoics,  in  speaking  of  the  restoration  of  the  earth 
after  the  final  conflagration,  employ  the  same  terms  as  we 
find  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  This,  to  say  the  least,  is  an 
interesting  coincidence.  Chrysippus  calls  it  "Apocatasta- 
sis" — restitution — as  St.  Peter  does  in  the  Acts.  Marcus 
Antoninus  several  times  calls  it  "  Palingenesia" — regenera- 
tion— as  our  Savior  does  in  Matthew,  and  Paul  in  the  epis- 
tle to  Titus;  and  Numenius  has  the  two  scripture  terms 
"  resurrection"  and  "  restitution." 

The  doctrines  of  the  Pythagoreans — save  a  few,  who  in 
later  times  were  led  off  by  Aristotle — were  nearly  iden- 
tical, in  respect  to  periodical  revolutions,  with  those  of  the 
Stoics.     Like  the  philosophy  of  the  Stoics,  that  of  Pythag- 

R 


386  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

oras  was  drawn  from  the  older  civilization  of  Egypt  and 
Persia. 

The  Ionics  discoursed  much  of  the  origin  of  things,  and 
agreed  with  the  Epicureans  and  Stoics  in  their  doctrine  of 
secular  catastrophes. 

Plato,  the  preceptor  of  the  Academics,  admits  that  the 
earth  is  subject  to  the  transformation  of  deluges  and  con- 
flagrations, but  expresses  the  belief  that  the  universe,  as  a 
whole,  is  something  so  beautiful  and  noble  that  the  good- 
ness of  God  will  perpetuate  its  existence. 

Aristotle  alone,  of  all  the  ancient  philosophers,  main- 
tained the  eternity  both  of  the  matter  of  the  universe  and 
of  the  existing  order.  He  confesses  to  a  pride  in  this,  since 
the  doctrine,  as  he  claims,  is  at  variance  with  the  unani- 
mous belief  of  antiquity. 

Among  the  Romans,  Lucretius,  Lucan,  and  Ovid  openly 
discourse  upon  the  prevalent  doctrine  of  periodical  catas- 
trophes; and  Cicero,  who  intermeddled  with  all  learning, 
assures  us  that  the  memory  of  mighty  deeds  can  not  be 
eternal,  since  conflagrations  and  deluges  periodically  oblit- 
erate all  record  of  human  achievements. 

The  Celts,  according  to  Strabo,  held  the  same  traditions 
in  the  west  as  were  current  among  the  nations  of  the  east 
of  Europe.  Their  Druids  secured  the  world  an  immortal- 
ity only  through  periodic  ordeals  by  fire  and  water. 

The  Persians  represent  their  god,  Fire,  as  the  final  aven- 
ger of  the  sins  of  men,  and  the  destroyer  of  the  world. 

Among  the  Arabians  and  Indians,  the  story  of  the  Phoe- 
nix is  an  allegory  of  the  earth.  This  bird  of  fable  no  sooner 
crumbles  to  ashes  than  she  rises  again  in  more  than  pris- 
tine beauty.  They  have  a  similar  fable  of  the  eagle,  which 
is  represented  as  soaring  so  near  the  sun  as  to  renew  his 
youth.  Allusion  seems  to  be  made  to  this  myth  in  the 
Psalms,  where  David  says  :  "  Thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the 


•     POPULAR  BELIEFS,  ETC.  387 

eagle's" — a  passage  which  the  Chaldee  paraphrase  ren- 
ders, "  Thou  shalt  renew  thy  youth  like  the  eagle  in  the 
world  to  come."* 

The  Aztecs,  according  to  Humboldt,  felt  the  curiosity 
common  to  man  in  every  stage  of  civilization,  to  lift  the 
veil  which  covers  the  mysterious  past  and  the  more  awful 
future.  They  sought  relief,  like  the  nations  of  the  old  con- 
tinent, from  the  oppressive  idea  of  eternity  by  breaking  it 
up  into  distinct  periods  or  cycles  of  time,  each  of  several 
thousand  years  duration.  There  were  four  of  these  cycles, 
and,  at  the  end  of  each,  by  the  agency  of  one  of  the  ele- 
ments, the  human  family  was  swept  from  the  earth,  and 
the  sun  blotted  from  the  heavens,  to  be  again  rekindled. 
The  Aztec's  conception  of  the  origin  of  man  is  nobler,  and 
more  approximated  to  that  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  than 
either  the  Egyptian  or  the  Hindoo.  The  following  are  ex- 
tracts from  a  translation  of  the  Popol  Yuh,  or  National 
Book  of  the  Quiches  of  Guatemala.  How  marvelously  con- 
formable is  the  first  extract  to  the  story  of  the  earth  as  re- 
cited by  geology ! 

"There  was  not  yet  a  single  man;  not  an  animal;  nei- 
ther birds,  nor  fishes,  nor  crabs,  nor  wood,  nor  stone,  nor 
ravines,  nor  herbs,  nor  forests ;  only  the  sky  existed.  The 
face  of  the  land  was  not  seen ;  there  was  only  the  silent  sea 
and  the  sky.  There  was  not  yet  a  body,  naught  to  attach 
itself  to  another ;  naught  that  balanced  itself,  naught  that 
made  a  sound  in  the  sky.  There  was  nothing  that  stood 
upright ;  naught  there  was  but  the  peaceful  sea — the  sea 
silent  and  solitary  in  its  limits ;  for  there  was  nothing  that 
was.  *  *  *  Those  who  fecundate,  those,  who  give  being, 
are  upon  the  waters  like  a  growing  light.  *  *  *  While 
they  consulted  the  day  broke,  and  at  the  moment  of  dawn 
man  appeared.  *  *  *  Thus  they  consulted  while  the  earth 
*  "In  mundo  venturo  rqnovabis,  sicut  aquilae,  juventutem  tuam." 


388  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

grew.  Thus,  verily,  took  place  the  creation  as  the  earth 
came  into  being.  '  Earth,'  said  they ;  and  the  earth  existed. 
Like  a  fog,  like  a  cloud  was  its  formation ;  as  huge  fishes 
rise  in  the  water,  so  rose  the  mountains ;  and  in  a  moment 
the  high  mountains  existed." 

The  foregoing  extract  is  from  the  history  of  the  first  cre- 
ation. It  can  not  be  necessary  to  point  out  the  parallels 
between  this  passage  and  the  pictures  drawn  by  the  classic 
poets — especially  Ovid — nor  even  to  direct  attention  to  the 
points  of  coincidence  with  the  Mosaic  account  of  chaos  and 
incipient  order.  The  following  passage  is  from  the  account 
of  the  fourth  and  last  creation : 

"  Hear,  now,  when  it  was  first  thought  of  man,  and  of 
what  man  should  be  formed.  At  that  time  spake  he  who 
gives  life,  and  he  who  gives  form,  the  Maker  and  Moulder, 
named  Tepen,  Gucumatz :  '  The  day  draws  near ;  the  work 
is  done ;  the  supporter,  the  servant  is  ennobled ;  he  is  the 
son  of  light,  the  child  of  whiteness ;  man  is  honored ;  the 
race  of  man  is  on  the  earth ;'  so  they  spake.  *  *  *  Imme- 
diately they  began  to  speak  of  making  our  first  mother 
and  our  father.  Only  of  yellow  corn  and  of  white  corn 
were  their  flesh,  and  the  substance  of  the  arms  and  legs  of 
man.  They  were  called  simply  beings,  formed  and  fash- 
ioned ;  they  had  neither  mother  nor  father ;  we  call  them 
simply  men.  Woman  did  not  bring  them  forth,  nor  were 
they  born  of  the  Builder  and  Moulder,  of  Him  who  fecun- 
dates and  of  Him  who  gives  being.  But  it  was  a  miracle, 
an  enchantment  worked  by  the  Maker  and  Moulder,  by 
Him  who  fecundates  and  Him  who  gives  being. 

"  Thought  was  in  them ;  they  saw ;  they  looked  around ; 
their  vision  took  in  all  things ;  they  perceived  the  world ; 
they  cast  their  eyes  from  the  sky  to  the  earth." 

"Then  they  were  asked  by  the  Builder  and  Moulder, 
*  What  think  ye  of  your  being  ?    See  ye  not  ?    Understand 


POPULAR  BELIEFS,  ETC.  389 

ye  not  ?  Your  language,  your  limbs,  are  they  not  good  ? 
Look  around  beneath  the  heavens ;  see  ye  not  the  moun- 
tains and  the  plains  V 

"  Then  they  looked,  and  saw  all  that  there  was  beneath 
the  heavens.  And  they  gave  thanks  to  the  Maker  and  the 
Moulder,  saying,  '  Truly,  twice  and  three  times,  thanks  ! 
We  have  being ;  we  have  been  given  a  mouth,  a  face ;  we 
speak,  we  understand,  we  think,  we  walk,  we  feel,  and  we 
know  that  which  is  far  and  that  which  is  near.  All  great 
things  and  small  on  the  earth  and  in  the  sky  do  we  see. 
Thanks  to  thee,  O  Maker,  O  Moulder,  that  we  have  been 
created,  that  we  have  our  being,  O  our  Grandmother,  O 
our  Grandfather !'  "* 

I  can  not  help  regarding  these  sentiments — these  rever- 
ies of  the  uninspired  and  uninstructed  intellect  of  man  feel- 
ing after  the  mystery  of  his  origin  and  the  origin  of  created 
things — as  equaling  in  sublimity  the  contemplations  of  a 
Socrates  or  a  Plato  groping  by  the  dim  light  of  reason  for 
an  outlook  into  the  future  of  the  soul. 

*  Histoire  des  nations  civilisees  du  Mexique  et  de  l'Amerique  centrale, 
durant  les  siecles  anterieurs  a  Christophe  Colomb,  ecrite  sur  des  docu- 
ments originaux  et  entierement  inedits,  puises  aux  anciennes  archives  des 
indigenes,  par  M.  l'abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg.  4  forts  vol.  in  -8  raisin 
avec  carte  et  figures. 


390  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

SOME   THOUGHTS   ON   PERPETUAL  MOTION. 

FROM  the  citations  made  in  the  last  chapter  we  dis- 
cover the  existence  of  a  unanimity  of  belief  in  the  doc- 
trine of  periodical  catastrophes  which  is  well  calculated  to 
excite  a  spirit  of  scientific  curiosity.  It  can  scarcely  be 
attributed  to  a  mere  tradition  descending  through  the 
ages,  and  through  all  the  nations  between  us  and  the  an- 
cient sages  upon  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  Mere  tradi- 
tion is  generally  circumscribed  by  the  nationality  or  race 
among  whom  it  originates.  A  tradition  of  a  philosophic 
character  must  have  been  subjected  to  the  scrutiny  of  the 
philosophers  of  the  nations  to  which  it  traveled.  If  ad- 
mitted, and  maintained,  and  perpetuated  from  age  to  age 
among  different  nations,  it  must  have  been  because  recog- 
nized as  something  more  than  a  tradition.  The  philosophy 
of  Greece  and  Rome  never  harbored  a  tenet  which  could 
only  be  defended  as  an  Oriental  tradition.  It  must  have 
discovered  some  rational  grounds  for  the  acceptance  of  this 
belief,  and  thus  have  made  it  a  philosophic  principle. 

What  were  the  grounds  of  the  naturalization  of  this  Ori- 
ental faith  we  might  be  unable  to  determine.  Pythagoras, 
however,  explicitly  taught  that  his  faith  was  founded  on 
an  observation  of  geological  phenomena ;  and  Lyell  thinks 
that  the  doctrine  in  general  was  based  upon  records  and 
traditions  of  deluges  and  earthquakes,  any  of  which  came 
far  short  of  revolutionizing  the  face  of  the  earth. 

A  doctrine  so  ineradicable,  and  so  spontaneous  in  every 
soil,  must  have  rested  upon  a  rational  belief.     That  belief 


SOME  THOUGHTS   ON  PERPETUAL  MOTION.     391 

may  be  of  the  nature  and  authority  of  an  intuitive  senti- 
ment. The  unanimous  consent  of  mankind  to  any  propo- 
sition is  to  be  regarded  as  the  utterance  of  humanity.  That 
which  our  common  humanity  expresses  is  the  expression 
of  the  Author  of  our  humanity ;  it  is  a  kind  of  revelation, 
and  will  be  found  in  all  cases  to  correspond  to  a  reality. 

But  we  are  not  compelled  to  refer  this  doctrine  to  any 
spontaneous,  and  universal,  and  necessary  intimations  grow- 
ing out  of  the  constitution  of  human  nature.  Why  may 
not  this  faith  have  been  a  grand  generalization  reached  in 
common  by  the  philosophic  minds  of  all  ages  ?  The  facts 
of  Nature  have  always  been  patent  to  all  the  world.  The 
phenomena  upon  which  we  have  reared  the  stupendous 
structure  of  the  modern  sciences  were  as  open  to  the  scru- 
tiny of  Thales,  and  Pythagoras,  and  Plato  as  to  us.  There 
are  scientific  grounds  for  such  beliefs;  and  the  ancient 
sages,  though  they  certainly  failed  to  appreciate  the  data 
of  science  to  the  same  extent  as  ourselves,  may  reasonably 
be  supposed  to  have  caught  glimpses  of  majestic  inductions 
which  involved  the  destruction  of  terrestrial  order,  or  even 
the  order  of  the  material  universe. 

We  stand  now  in  the  presence  of  those  grand  and  in- 
structive phenomena.  On  an  eminence  in  the  midst  of  the 
visible  universe,  with  the  multitudinous  events  of  earth 
and  heaven  transpiring  before  our  eyes — a  universe  flooded 
by  the  ethereal  light  of  modern  science — our  intelligence 
gifted  with  the  power  to  penetrate  to  the  core  of  the  earth, 
or  fly  beyond  the  flight  of  the  most  erratic  comet — or  pierce 
the  gloom  of  a  million  ages  passed — or  lift  the  veil  which 
opens  the  vista  of  a  million  ages  to  come — and  here,  in  this 
favored  position,  we  ask  ourselves  what  tides  we  witness  in 
the  flow  of  terrestrial  and  cosmical  events.  It  is  a  sublime 
query.  With  boldness,  but  with  humility  and  reverence, 
let  us  seek  the  answer. 


392 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


Looking  around  us,  we  behold  all  Nature  instinct  with 
motion.  The  winter  winds  are  hurrying  to  and  fro ;  the 
storm-cloud  scatters  moisture  from  the  mountains  to  the 
sea';  the  noisy  torrent  foams  down  the  hill-side,  and  the 
majestic  river  winds  ceaselessly  to  the  ocean ;  vapors  rise 
from  the  ground  and  descend  again  in  rain  and  snow ;  the 
punctual  tide  performs  unweariedly  its  daily  perambulation 
of  the  globe ;  the  waves'  hoarse  growl  along  the  rocky 
beach  is  never  stilled.  The  forces  of  matter,  in  their  mul- 
tiple forms  and  their  myriad  labors,  keep  every  element 
and  every  atom  constantly  astir.  If  we  look  up,  the  sun, 
and  moon,  and  stars  are  on  their  journeys.  Every  planet- 
ary orb  and  every  satellite  is  full  of  motion.  Even  while 
it  performs  its  stupendous  journey  about  the  sun,  it  is  for- 
ever shifting  its  attitude  in  respect  to  itself.  Not  content 
with  orbital  and  axial  motions,  each  planet  nods  grandly 
from  its  ethereal  altitude,  and  keeps  time  with  the  rhythm 
of  the  solar  year.  The  stars  which  we  call  "  fixed"  are 
probably  in  motion,  since  twenty  or  thirty  pairs  of  stars 
are  seen  to  revolve  about  each  other;  and,  if  the  wonderful 
induction  of  M'adler  is  to  be  credited,  our  sun,  with  his  ret- 
inue of  over  a  hundred  planets,  satellites,  and  comets,  is 
sweeping  through  space  on  a  stupendous  journey  of 
18,000,000  of  years. 

Now  we  start  the  inquiry  whether  all  this  motion  can  be 
perpetuated  forever.  Motion,  according  to  the  new  philos- 
ophy, is  but  one  of  the  modes  of  heat,  or  electricity,  or 
light,  or  magnetism,  or  chemical  affinity.  Under  certain 
circumstances,  one  of  these  forms  of  force  is  changed  into 
another.  It  is  a  law  of  every  form  of  force  to  seelc  a  stat- 
ical equilibrium,  and  the  transformation  of  a  force  signal- 
izes its  attainment  of  an  equilibrium.  A  hammer  descends 
upon  a  bar  of  steel  and  conies  to  rest ;  the  motion  is  coun- 
teracted, but  at  this  instant,  and  in  consequence  of  its  dis- 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  PERPETUAL  MOTION.    393 

appearance  in  the  form  of  motion,  it  reappears  in  the  form 
of  heat.  This  heat  seeks  an  equilibrium  by  transferring 
itself  to  the  colder  air,  in  which  motion  reappears  in  the 
heated  ascending  column.  But  this  motion,  in  turn,  disap- 
pears when  the  heated  column,  by  transference  of  its  heat, 
has  ceased  to  be  warmer  than  the  contiguous  air.  All 
force  is  seeking  some  affinity  with  which  it  may  be  at  rest, 
or  it  is  striving  to  effect  a  motion  which  will  bring  its  ac- 
tivities to  rest.  In  obedience  to  the  force  of  gravity,  rain 
falls  from  the  clouds,  gathers  itself  into  little  rills,  which, 
uniting  their  forces,  join  arms  with  the  brooklet,  and  thence 
glide  in  company  witli  the  rivulet  to  the  outlet  of  the  val- 
ley, and  wend  their  way  to  the  sea.  In  the  deep  bed  of 
the  ocean  the  waters  rest.  The  demand  of  gravity  is  sat- 
isfied. The  friction  of  ascending  vapors  upon  the  atmos- 
phere disturbs  the  equilibrium  of  the  electricities ;  they 
flash  in  anger  from  cloud  to  cloud,  and  between  the  clouds 
and  the  earth,  ever  striving  to  restore  the  equilibrium. 
When  that  is  effected,  all  the  phenomena  resulting  from 
electrical  action  cease,  and  would  forever  cease  were  not  a 
fresh  disturbance  introduced.  If  the  electricities  are  again 
disturbed,  it  is  because  some  other  force  is  seeking  its  equi- 
librium. This  other  force  is  out  of  equilibrium  because 
some  third  force  has  created  disturbance  in  the  search  for 
its  own  equilibrium,  and  thus  link  hangs  upon  link  in 
this  chain  of  causation.  We  know  not  how  far  back  the 
remotest  disturbing  force  may  lie,  but  of  this  we  may  be 
certain ;  there  is  somewhere,  or  will  be  somewhere  in  the 
future,  a  last  disturbing  force.  Behind  this,  all  is  rest. 
When  this  has  attained  its  equilibrium,  all  the  phenomena 
resulting  from  the  struggle  of  the  forces  will  cease. 

This  is  a  mere  abstract  statement  of  the  case.  It  pos- 
sesses a  higher  significance  than  we  may  suspect.  The  ar 
gument  concerns  the  stability  of  the  very  earth  on  which 

R  2 


394 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


we  tread.  Every  one  has  heard  of  the  chimera  of"  perpet- 
ual motion."  Not  every  one,  however,  has  considered  that 
the  impossibility  of  perpetual  motion  results  from  the  im- 
possibility of  transforming  forces  in  a  perpetual  circle. 
Force  shuns  perpetual  motion.  It  tolerates  no  such  mo- 
notony. It  is  seeking  rest.  In  larger  or  smaller  quantities 
it  steals  away  from  you,  and  lies  down  to  a  quiet  slumber, 
while  your  machine  is  deserted  and  motionless  as  a  corpse. 
Heat  niters  in  every  direction  through  the  atmosphere; 
motion  steals  through  the  bearings  of  your  wheels,  and, 
under  the  guise  of  frictional  heat,  it  sneaks  away  from  your 
control. 

All  motion  is  mechanical.  There  is  no  motion  in  the 
heavens  above,  or  upon  the  earth  beneath,  which  is  not  ef- 
fected by  the  self-same  forces  as  we  incorporate  in  a  steam- 
engine,  or  vainly  strive  to  chain  to  the  drudgery  of  perpet- 
ual motion.  Every  movement  which  we  witness  upon  the 
earth — whether  of  winds,  or  clouds,  or  waters,  or  quaking 
mountains,  is  but  the  motion  of  some  part  of  a  machine. 
The  earth  is  a  piece  of  mechanism.  The  varied  motions 
which  we  witness  upon  its  surface  arise  from  the  perpetual 
transformations  of  force.  The  solar  system  is  a  piece  of 
mechanism.  All  its  visible  motions  have  been  demon- 
strated to  arise  from  the  action  of  the  same  force  as  that 
which  drives  a  water-wheel  or  a  hydraulic  ram. 

The  question  then  arises  whether  the  motions  of  a  great 
machine  are  more  likely  to  be  perpetuated  than  those  of  a 
small  one.  A  vast  and  complicated  machine  can  be  noth- 
ing more  than  a  concatenation  of  small  ones.  The  very 
statement  of  the  case  suggests  a*  negative  response.  Ter- 
restrial forces,  like  those  which  impel  the  locomotive,  are 
wearing  themselves  out.  All  their  activities  are  destined 
to  be  invaded  by  the  sluggishness  of  age — by  the  torpor 
of  death.     The  cosmical  machine,  like  a  clock,  is  running 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  PERPETUAL  MOTION.    395 

down,  and,  like  a  clock,  will  eventually  demand  the  inter- 
position of  an  Intelligent  Will  to  re-establish  its  motion. 
The  denial  of  this  proposition  drives  us  to  one  of  the  fol- 
lowing alternatives :  first,  that  there  exists  in  Nature  an 
endless  series  of  causation — the  remotest  assignable  cause 
still  hanging  upon  another  cause  not  higher  than  a  material 
force — a  conclusion  entirely  at  variance  with  our  intuitive 
cognition  of  primary  causation ;  or,  secondly,  that  one  or 
more  of  the  series  of  causes  can  act  in  different  modes,  so 
that  what  had  just  been  done  is  presently  undone,  or  done 
differently,  and  thus  new  conditions  created  for  the  re- 
newed activity  of  other  forces.  But  the  supposition  of  a 
change  in  the  mode  of  action  of  any  force  or  cause  contra- 
dicts a  fundamental  axiom  of  philosophy.  We  have  no  au- 
thority for  such  an  assumption,  and  are  not  at  liberty  to 
resort  to  it. 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  these  are  conclusions  which  are 
repugnant  to  the  popular  apprehension  of  Nature's  opera- 
tions. The  thought  of  a  "  machine,"  moreover,  suggests 
self-action,  and  seems  at  first  to  exclude  that  intelligent 
special  agency  in  Nature  which  we  call  Providence.  The 
solar  system  is,  nevertheless,  a  combination  of  matter  and 
force  whose  movements  can  be  calculated  with  the  same 
precision  as  those  of  a  steam  printing-press.  If  it  be  neces- 
sary to  protect  our  notion  of  a  Providence,  let  us  suppose 
that  those  mighty  forces  which  handle  planets  as  if  they 
were  engaged  in  a  "  game  of  ball"  are  not  energies  inher- 
ent in  matter,  but  the  immediate  efforts  of  a  divine  will. 
It  may  be  so.  .There  is  no  logic  which  can  overthrow  the 
assumption.  But  in  either  case,  these  energies  are  put 
forth  according  to  intelligible  and  unvarying  methods;  and 
all  that  science  asserts  is,  that  if  the  methods  remain  the 
same — that  is,  if  the  laws  of  Nature  continue  unchanged — 
the  course  of  cosmical  activities  will  complete  its  round. 


396  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

All  the  material  forces,  therefore,  of  the  universe,  both 
mechanical  and  physiological,  with  their  actions  and  reac- 
tions, their  equilibria  and  perturbations,  are  tending  grad- 
ually toward  a  general  and  permanent  rest.  The  threads 
of  their  mutual  connection  may  be  closely  interwoven,  but 
somewhere  there  is  a  beginning  and  an  end.  Within  the 
grand  cycle  of  their  active  lifetime  apparent  circles  may 
be  described,  but,  like  the  eddies  of  a  river  stream,  they  are 
lost  in  the  general  current,  or,  like  the  gyrations  of  a  disk 
descending  through  the  sea,  they  are  only  apparent,  and 
wend  their  way  toward  ultimate  rest.  The  same  exact 
conditions  are  never*  reproduced.  [See  Appendix,  Note 
IX.] 


WILL   THE  MOUNTAINS  BE  LEVELED?         397 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

WILL  THE    MOUNTAINS   BE    LEVELED? 

LET  us  now  direct  our  attention  to  a  more  specific  ex- 
amination of  the  circumstances  under  which  the  visi- 
ble activities  of  our  terrestrial  abode  are  carried  on.  The 
fact  which  first  and  most  strongly  arrests  our  attention  is 
the  presence  of  universal  and  perpetual  change.  This  fact 
alone  demonstrates  that  the  existing  terrestrial  order  had 
a  beginning.  Work  is  in  progress  before  our  eyes;  we 
may  easily  determine  what  has  been  accomplished  and  what 
remains  to  be  accomplished.  Had  these  changes  been  in 
progress  from  all  eternity,  every  thing  which  existing  forces 
are  capable  of  effecting  would  have  been  consummated  an 
eternity  since,  and  physical  stagnation  would  now  be  reign- 
ing. It  is  equally  plain  that  the  work  which  remains  to  be 
accomplished  is  a  finite  work,  and  is  destined  to  be  accom- 
plished in  finite  duration. 

What  is  the  work  with  which  terrestrial  forces  are  oc- 
cupied ?  What  are  the  labors  of  oceans,  and  winds,  and 
rains,  and  frost,  and  mountain  torrents,  and  swollen  streams, 
and  pent-up  fires  ?  *  We  witness  here  a  grand  antagonism 
of  Nature's  energies.  While  on  one  hand  Nature  has  ex- 
erted herself  to  rear  the  continents,  on  the  other  hand  a 
different  set  of  forces  has  been  equally  assiduous  in  beating 
them  down.  There  was  a  time  when  the  igneous  forces 
possessed  the  advantage,  and  island,  and  continent,  and 
Alp  rose  triumphant  over  the  sea.  That  was  the  age 
when  the  igneous  forces  were  in  their  youth.  Then  all 
their  elastic  energies  were  commissioned  to  rear  a  dwell- 


398 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


ing-place  for  man.  But,  during  geologic  ages  unnumbered, 
the  powers  of  water  have  been  wrestling  with  the  powers 
of  jire.  Rains  and  floods  have  been  tearing  down  what 
fire  had  built.  The  energies  of  fire  have  been  wasting ; 
the  earthquake  and  the  volcano  have  been  stricken  with 
the  palsy  of  age.  Old  Ocean,  however,  is  still  in  his  youth. 
The  volcano  had  been  smitten  with  decrepitude  even  before 
the  ocean  had  its  birth.  The  denuding  and  destroying 
agencies  of  Nature  have  gained  the  ascendency,  and,  in  the 
inevitable  order  of  things,  are  destined  to  retain  it. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  labors  of  water  in  leveling  the  ine- 
qualities which  ancient  volcanic  energy  had  long  ago  cre- 
ated upon  the  surface  of  our  planet.  Throughout  the  whole 
extent  of  the  circumambient  sea,  the  tireless  surge  is  gnaw- 
ing at  the  rock-bound  shore,  and  mouthful  by  mouthful 
the  continents  and  the  islands  are  being  swallowed  up. 
The  sediment  which  every  summer  shower  washes  down 
the  hill-side  is  so  much  material  taken  from  the  hill-top  and 
deposited  in  the  valley.  The  deep  mould  of  the  alluvial 
fiat  is  made  up  of  the  spoils  of  the  adjacent  declivities. 
By  as  much  as  the  valley  is  raised,  the  hills  are  lowered. 
The  turbid  waters  of  a  winter  stream  are  hurrying  off  with 
a  freight  of  sediment  stolen  from  a  hundred  townships. 
The  mud  which  settles  in  my  glass  of  river  water  upon  a 
Mississippi  steam-boat  is  a  mouthful  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains— or  perchance  of  the  Alleghanies — or,  what  is  still 
more  probable,  it  is  a  whole  museum  of  soils,  gathered  from 
the  fertile  farms  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania — from  the 
sandy  cliffs  of  the  Great  Kenawha — from  the  clayey  slopes 
of  Cincinnati — from  the  slimy  borders  of  Lake  Pepin — from 
the  melon-patch  of  a  Cheyenne  squaw,  and  from  the  beet- 
ling cliffs  of  the  far-off  Yellowstone.  Of  what  part  of  the 
country  is  not  this  slime  the  washing  ?  From  month  to 
month,  and  from  year  to  year,  and  from  age  to  age,  this 


WILL    THE  MOUNTAINS  BE  LEVELED f  399 

stately  river  is  floating  off  the  land — not  noisily,  but  sul- 
lenly and  angrily,  as  if  the  waters  had  some  great  wrong 
to  avenge  upon  the  land.  And  all  these  filchings  from  the 
mountain  and  the  plain  are  restored  again  to  the  sea.  Old 
Ocean  is  receiving  back  his  own.  The  rivers  are  his  allies, 
and  right  faithfully  do  they  forage  to  supply  the  cravings 
of  his  insatiate  maw. 

We  witness  such  work  in  progress  during  the  brief  mo- 
ment of  our  tarry  upon  the  earth.  We  look  back  along 
this  line  of  operations,  and  discern  for  the  first  time  the  gi- 
gantic results  which  have  already  been  achieved  by  the 
wearing  agency  of  waters.  Not  during  the  lifetime  of 
Adam's  race  alone,  but  during  the  age  of  quadrupeds  which 
preceded  him — through  the  dynasty  of  reptiles,  still  more 
ancient,  have  these  denuding  forces  been  ceaselessly  en- 
gaged in  scraping,  and  gouging,  and  scarring  the  face  of 
Nature.  River-beds  have  been  deeply  excavated  and  again 
obliterated  by  a  plethora  of  rubbish  poured  forward  by 
some  more  gigantic  operation.  Lake  basins  have  been 
scooped  out — Niagara  gorges  dug — square  miles  of  land, 
with  its  underlying  rocky  floors,  have  been  swept  away. 
From  the  summits  of  the  Catskill  Mountains  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  once  stretched  eastward  perhaps  to  Massachu- 
setts Bay.  The  powers  of  water  have  strewn  it  over  Long 
Island  Sound,  and  far  to  the  seaward  of  Sandy  Hook.  The 
Cumberland  Table-land  once  reached  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  westward  over  the  basin  of  Middle  Tennessee.  The 
site  whereon  the  city  of  Nashville  now  stands  was  once  a 
thousand  feet  beneath  the  level  of  the  land.  Half  a  state 
was  scraped  away  to  extend  the  borders  of  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  The  Alleghanies,  in  their  prime,  were  three  thou- 
sand feet  higher  than  human  eyes  have  ever  seen  them. 
Their  ancient  summits  are  sunken  in  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.     The  Great  American  Desert  was  once  as 


400 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


fertile  as  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  A  great  river 
watered  it  for  a  thousand  miles,  while  a  hundred  tributa- 
ries, dispensed  fertility  throughout  the  region  which  was 
then  the  garden,  as  it  is  now  the  desert,  of  the  continent. 
That  fertile  plateau  has  been  drained  to  death.  Each 
stream  has  drilled  a  frightful  chasm  deep  through  the 
rocky  foundations  of  the  plain  (Fig.  96,  97).  The -mother 
stream,  the  Colorado,  dwarfed  to  a  withered  mockery  of 
what  it  was,  now  creeps  along  at  the  bottom  of  a  narrow 
gorge  whose  rocky  walls  rise,  in  places,  more  than  a  mile 
in  height.  From  the  brink  of  this  appalling  chasm,  three 
hundred  miles  in  length,  your  vision  struggles  down  six 
thousand  feet  into  the  realm  of  twilight ;  and  in  this  prison 
the  attenuated  Colorado — patriarch  of  American  rivers- 
is  wasting  its  senile  energies  from  year  to  year,  but,  with 
"  the  ruling  passion  strong  in  death,"  it  is  still  carrying  off 
the  land,  even  though  each  season's  work  sinks  it  into  a 
deeper  grave. 

Such  are  the  works  of  running  streams  and  corroding 
waves.  The  record  of  their  labors  is  the  utterance  of  the 
destiny  of  the  land.  History  inverted  becomes  prophecy. 
The  doom  of  the  mountains  is  engraven  upon  their  rocky 
buttresses.  Half  the  pride  of  the  Alleghanies  has  already 
been  removed.  Rounded  hill-top  is  dissolving  into  plain. 
Defiant  granite,  which  buffeted  the  lightnings  that  rent 
Sinai,  and  frowned  upon  the  flood  that  drowned  "the 
world,"  shall  yet  be  brought  down  by  the  multitudinous 
pelting  of  rain,  and  the  insidious  sapping  of  frost.  The 
mountains  shall  be  wiped  off.  The  continents  shall  be 
worn  out.  The  rivers  will  have  dug  their  graves.  The 
ocean  will  have  eaten  up  the  land ;  and  all  there  was  of  the 
dwelling-place  of  man  will  be  a  rocky  islet,  a  ragged  bluff, 
a  sunken  reef — the  crumbs  that  fell  from  old  Ocean's  meal. 

There  was  a  time  when,  by  degrees,  the  continents  were 


WILL   THE  MOUNTAINS  BE  LEVELED?  401 

slowly  and  steadily  surging  from  the  sea.  The  sea,  robbed 
of  half  his  dominions,  has  ever  since  been  raging  around 
the  borders  of  the  land.  At  last  he  will  again  reclaim  his 
own,  and  the  universal  empire  will  be  Neptune's. 

It  is  vain  to  hope  that  elevatory  forces  can  permanently 
avert  the  disappearance  of  the  land.  We  discover  here 
another  argument  against  the  vague  belief  entertained  by 
some,  that  the  human  fauna  is  to  be  succeeded  by  a  higher 
one,  as  it  has  itself  succeeded  the  lower.  Should  it  be  sup- 
posed that  the  ultimate  submergence  predicted  is  suffi- 
ciently remote  to  permit  the  interposition  of  a  superior 
race  of  intelligences,  I  recall  to  mind  the  evidences  that 
the  lands  are  wasting  and  deteriorating ;  the  river-beds  are 
deepening,  and  diminishing  the  sources  of  irrigation ;  and 
all  the  populated  regions  of  the  earth  are  slowly  approach- 
ing the  desert  condition  of  that  ancient  continent  drained 
by  the  Colorado.  Each  continental  surface  in  the  geolog- 
ical succession  is  the  exclusive  gift  to  a  single  great  fauna. 
A  single  race  witnesses  the  disappearance  of  the  freshness 
and  fertility,  of  the  land.  A  new  race  would  demand  a 
thorough  renovation,  like  that  which  immediately  preceded 
the  advent  of  man.  Such  a  revolution  the  senescent  forces 
are  unable  to  inaugurate. 


402 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXVH. 

THE    REIGN   OF   UNIVERSAL   WINTER. 

WE  open  now  another  volume  of  geological  records. 
From  this  we  glean  another  prophecy. 

I  have  stated  that  the  energies  of  the  earth's  internal 
fires  are  waning.  There  is  a  chain  of  eifects  which,  when 
we  trace  them  backward,  conduct  us  to  an  ancient  molten 
condition  of  the  world.  At  a  period  comparatively  recent, 
it  was  still  so  warm  that  tropical  vegetation  flourished 
within  the  arctic  circle.  At  a  remoter  period,  neither  ani- 
mal nor  plant  could  endure  the  temperature  which  pre- 
vailed, nor  the  warfare  which  fire  and  water  were  waging 
with  each  other.  We  retain  the  solid  monuments  of  a  ter- 
restrial condition  which  carries  us  still  deeper  into  the 
heart  of  eternity ;  when  the  whole  orb  was  a  glowing  ocean 
of  incandescent  lava,  while  yet  the  waters  of  the  earth 
hung  in  invisible  vapor  upon  the  outskirts  of  the  atmos- 
phere, like  a  concealed  foe  meditating  a  secret  attack  upon 
a  powerful  enemy. 

Few  who  have  studied  the  physics  of  the  globe,  and 
fewer  still  who  have  deciphered  geological  records,  doubt 
that  such  were  once  the  temperature  and  conditions  of  our 
planet.  From  that  state  to  this,  it  has  passed  by  the  sim- 
ple process  of  cooling.  We  trace  the  footsteps  of  this 
progress  at  every  stage.  Through  Azoic,  Eozoic,  Paleo- 
zoic, Mesozoic,  and  Cenozoic  Ages,  heat  has  been  gradually 
wasted  in  space — the  solid  crust  has  been  thickening — the 
surface  conditions  have  been  chansons'.  The  average  tern- 
perature  of  to-day,  instead  of  being  a  state  that  is  destined 


THE  REIGN  OF  UNIVERSAL  WINTER.  403 

to  perpetuity,  is  but  a  passing  phase ;  and  when  we  shall 
have  passed  away  with  the  other  transient  existences 
around  us,  some  succeeding  intelligence,  gifted  with  the 
power  to  travel  from  sphere  to  sphere,  will  note  the  world 
in  an  altered  condition. 

I  step  here  upon  ground  which  has  been  somewhat  con- 
tested. It  was  long  since  alleged  that  if  our  world  be  still 
in  process  of  refrigeration,  a  sensible  reduction  in  temper- 
ature ought  to  have  taken  place  in  2000  years.  But  no 
such  reduction  has  been  satisfactorily  established,  though  it 
will  be  confessed  that  we  scarcely  have  exact  observations 
on  temperature  which  are  more  than  two  hundred  years 
old.  It  was  also  alleged  that  since  a  reduction  of  temper- 
ature must  be  accompanied  by  a  reduction  of  volume,  the 
rate  of  the  earth's  rotation  upon  its  axis  must  have  been 
accelerated.  But  Laplace  has  demonstrated  from  ancient 
observations  on  eclipses  that  the  mean  day  has  not  been 
diminished  s^th  of  a  second  since  the  time  of  Hipparchus, 
or  during  an  interval  of  2500  years.  These  negative  re- 
sults have  been  opposed  to  the  theory  of  Cordier  in  refer- 
ence to  the  former  high  temperature  of  the  earth,  and  it 
has,  till  recently,  been  customary  to  speak  of  the  thermal,  no 
less  than  the  astronomical  conditions  of  our  planet  as  con- 
stant. Poisson,  an  eminent  French  mathematician,  proved, 
as  was  supposed,  that  the  heat  escaping  from  the  earth  in 
the  latitude  of  Paris  was  only  sufficient  to  elevate  the  tem- 
perature of  a  column  of  water  eighteen  inches  high  the  tri- 
fling amount  of  one  degree  and  a  half.  Vogt,  a  celebrated 
German  geologist,  affirms  that  the  existing  temperature  of 
the  surface  of  the  earth  is  but  one  twelfth  of  a  degree 
higher  than  it  would  be  if  the  earth  were  completely  cooled 
to  the  core.  According  to  the  later  researches  of  Pouillet, 
the  heat  communicated  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  from  the 
central  fire  is  but  one  fortieth  the  amount  received  from 


404 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


the  sun ;  while,  according  to  Fourier's  celebrated  computa- 
tion, the  heat  radiated  from  the  earth's  surface  is  only  suf- 
ficient to  melt  a  layer  of  ice  ten  feet  thick  in  one  hundred 
years. 

The  most  conservative  of  these  results  may  be  regarded 
as  showing  that  our  earth  is  actually  losing  heat  to  a  per- 
ceptible and  measurable  extent.  Neither  is  the  amount 
of  heat  escaping  at  Paris  to  be  taken  as  the  measure  of  the 
reduction  of  the  temperature  of  the  mass  of  the  earth  in 
general.  There  are  three  hundred  active  volcanoes  in  ex- 
istence, from  the  craters  of  which  enormous  quantities  of 
heat  are  permitted  to  waste.  The  ocean,  too,  carries  off 
vastly  larger  quantities  than  the  land.  The  floor  of  the 
ocean  is  generally  overlaid  by  a  stratum  of  ice-cold  water 
setting  southward  from  the  polar  regions.  This  cold  stream 
is  overlaid  by  a  warmer  one  moving  northward  from  the 
tropics.  Water  being  a  better  conductor  of  heat  than  at- 
mospheric air,  this  cold  stratum  must  necessarily  abstract 
terrestrial  heat  with  vastly  greater  rapidity  than  the  aver- 
age atmosphere  of  the  temperate  zone.  Many  observations 
indicate  that  the  temperature  of  the  solid  crust  beneath  the 
waters  of  the  ocean  is  much  higher  than  that  of  continent- 
al surfaces,  and  hence  imparts  its  warmth  in  larger  quan- 
tities. Throughout  all  that  part  of  the  Frozen  Ocean  north 
of  Europe  and  Asia,  the  temperature  is  found  to  increase 
at  considerable  depths,  contrary  to  the  well-known  laws  of 
hydrostatics.  [See  Appendix,  Note  X.]  The  same  phe- 
nomenon has  been  observed  on  the  coast  of  Australia,  in 
the  Adriatic,  and  Lago  Maggiore.  Horner  asserts  that  in 
the  deep  soundings  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  off  the  coast  of  the 
United  States,  the  lead,  when  drawn  up, "  used  to  be  hotter 
than  boiling  water." 

These  facts,  with  others,  seem  to  demonstrate  that  our 
planet  is  wasting  its  warmth  many  times  faster  than  the 


THE  REIGN  OF  UNIVERSAL    WINTER.  405 

calculations  of  the  mathematicians  would  indicate.  It 
seems  inevitable,  therefore,  that  the  earth  should  have  ex- 
pended sufficient  heat  in  2500  years  to  effect  a  sensible  re- 
duction in  the  length  of  the  day. 

Thanks  to  the  mathematicians,  they  have  again  come  to 
our  aid.  The  tide-wave  is  a  protuberance  of  the  ocean- 
waters  raised  by  the  moon,  and  following  the  moon  around 
the  earth  from  east  to  west.  This  motion  is  contrary  to 
the  earth's  diurnal  rotation,  and  the  friction  of  the  tidal 
waters  against  the  shore  and  the  standing  waters  must 
necessarily  tend  to  retard  the  rotary  motion  of  the  earth. 
Now  it  has  been  calculated  that  this  retardation  must  have 
amounted  to  one  sixteenth  of  a  second  in  2500  years.  If, 
therefore,  no  counteracting  tendency  has  been  experienced, 
the  sidereal  day  is  one  sixteenth  of  a  second  longer  than  it 
was  in  the  time  of  Hipparchus.  But  Laplace  has  shown 
that  the  sidereal  day  has  not  varied  in  length.  It  follows, 
therefore,  that  the  shrinkage  of  the  earth  from  loss  of  heat 
has  tended  to  accelerate  its  rotation  to  the  extent  of  one 
sixteenth  of  a  second  in  twenty-five  centuries.  Such  an 
acceleration  corresponds  to  a  shortening  of  the  diameter 
about  sixty  feet,  and  a  reduction  of  the  temperature  of  the 
whole  mass  of  the  earth  one  fourteenth  of  a  degree. 

When  the  earth  was  in  its  youth,  just  emerging  from  a 
molten  state,  the  loss  of  heat  and  consequent  contraction 
must  necessarily  have  been  rapid.  During  this  period  the 
sidereal  day  underwent  a  much  more  rapid  shortening  than 
at  present.  In  the  distant  future,  on  the  contrary,  the  loss 
of  heat  will  become  diminished  to  an  extreme  extent,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  the  retardation  caused  by  the  tide-wave 
will  gain  the  ascendency,  and  the  day  will  eventually  be 
lengthened  to  such  an  extent  that  the  earth  will  always 
turn  the  same  side  toward  the  sun,  as  the  moon  always 
turns  the  same  side  toward  the  earth.     The  historic  period 


406  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

of  our  race,  as  Mayer  suggests,  occupies  consequently  the 
comparatively  brief  space  during  which  the  retarding  and 
accelerating  tendencies  neutralize  each  other. 

These  are  the  determinations  of  exact  science.  Mathe- 
matics have  demonstrated  that  the  cooling  process  which 
geology  affirms  of  the  past  is  certainly  in  progress  in  the 
present.  It  is  immaterial  how  slow  the  process  may  be ; 
the  ultimate  total  refrigeration  of  the  earth  is  a  result 
which  time  will  accomplish.  Time,  I  say,  since  after  the 
work  is  completed  eternity  will  stretch  onward  as  fresh, 
and  inexhaustible,  and  limitless  as  when  the  career  of  plan- 
etary matter  began. 

This  earth,  to  which  our  life-long  round  of  labor  and  care 
is  limited  by  an  inexorable  decree,  was  once  a  self-luminous 
orb.  Far  away  in  space,  where  Sirius  was  gleaming  with 
his  silver,  or,  perchance,  his  ruddy  light,  dwelt  intelligent 
beings  upon  a  planet  which  had  already  attained  a  habita- 
ble condition.  From  that  abode  the  astronomer  found 
means  to  contemplate  the  fiery  globe  that  was  destined  to 
become  the  dwelling-place  of  man.  Centuries  of  centuries 
later,  the  astronomer  upon  that  distant  orb  noted  the  dis- 
appearance of  a  star  upon  which  his  predecessors  had  taken 
observations.  Our  planet  had  become  opaque.  Mists  had 
gathered  about  it,  and  the  ocean  had  descended  from  the 
clouds.  Never  more  has  this  once  resplendent  orb  greeted 
the  eye  of  the  astronomer  of  other  systems ;  and  while 
now  the  annals  of  his  science  perpetrate  the  memory  of  a 
lost  star,  that  star  first  becomes  a  reality  to  conscious  man. 
But  our  occupancy  of  the  terrestrial  globe  is  only  a  phase 
as  evanescent  as  the  self-luminous  stage.  While  we  build 
our  cities  and  recount  the  achievements  of  a  few  genera- 
tions past,  this  globe  of  matter  hurries  onward  in  its  des- 
tined career  as  rapidly  as  a  million  years  ago,  when  mere- 
ly preparing  for  the  occupancy  of  Adam's  race.     Every 


THE  REIGN  OF  UNIVERSAL    WINTER.  407 

year  and  every  day  witnesses  the  dissipation  of  terrestrial 
warmth.  While  we  ponder  the  great  fact,  the  world  is 
growing  cold  beneath  our  feet.  The  current  of  events  is 
carrying  us  inevitably  to  a  state  of  total  refrigeration. 
Perhaps  the  mountains  will  have  been  leveled  first,  and  the 
continents  swallowed  up  in  the  sea.  Perhaps  the  volcano 
will  have  been  first  extinguished,  and  the  earthquake  will 
have  lain  down  to  its  final  slumber.  Buffbn  imagined  that 
the  final  refrigeration  of  the  earth  would  introduce  the  rig- 
ors of  perpetual  winter,  and  render  our  planet  uninhabita- 
ble. Though  more  recent  investigators  have  asserted  that 
that  event  would  only  reduce  our  earth's  surface  tempera- 
ture one  fortieth  of  its  present  amount,  it  seems  difficult  to 
rest  upon  that  conclusion.  The  interior  of  the  earth  is 
probably  half  as  hot  as  the  sun.  The  earth's  molten  core 
is  separated  from  us  by  not  more  than  a  hundred  miles  of 
rocky  crust.  The  glowing  sun  is  a  million  times  farther  re- 
moved, and  yet,  it  is  alleged,  yields  forty  times  the  warmth 
which  we  derive  from  the  nearer  heat.  In  face  of  the  tes- 
timony of  figures,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt  that  the 
final  cooling  of  our  earth  will  exert  a  greater  influence 
upon  its  surface  conditions  than  these  philosophers  have 
dreamed. 


408 


SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

THE     SUN     COOLING     OFF. 

WE  are  not  driven  to  the  necessity  of  summoning  ex- 
aggerated and  imaginary  agencies  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  earth.  There  are  hostile  powers  reserved  for 
the  final  conflict  that  will  not  be  content  with  directing 
toward  us  merely  "  Quaker  guns." 

The  sun,  we  say,  affords  us  thirty-nine  fortieths  of  all  the 
warmth  which  we  enjoy,  and  we  feel  quite  unconcerned 
about  the  alleged  slow  cooling  of  the  earth.  To  the  sun 
we  owe  the  numberless  activities  of  the  organic  and  inor- 
ganic worlds,  and  we  feel  quite  independent  of  the  wan- 
ing temperature  of  this  dying  ember  which  we  call  the 
earth. 

The  amount  of  heat  dispensed  by  our  solar  orb  is  truly 
something  the  contemplation  of  which  overpowers  the  im- 
agination. The  rays  which  fall  upon  a  common  burning- 
glass,  converged  to  a  focus,  speedily  ignite  a  piece  of  wood. 
The  heat  which  is  received  by  a  space  often  yards  square 
is  sufficient,  as  Ericsson  states,  to  drive  a  nine-horse  power 
engine.  The  amount  of  heat  which  falls  upon  half  a  Swe- 
dish square  mile  is  sufficient  to  actuate  64,800  engines,  each 
of  100  horse  power.  The  total  amount  of  heat  received 
annually  by  the  earth  would  melt  a  layer  of  ice  one  hun- 
dred feet  thick.  As  the  solar  heat  is  radiated  equally  in 
all  directions,  it  is  easily  calculated  that  the  total  emission 
of  heat  from  the  sun  is  2300  millions  of  times  the  whole 
amount  which  reaches  our  earth. 

Such  an  enormous  expenditure  of  heat  is  sufficient  to  re- 


THE  SUN  COOLING   OFF.  409 

duce  the  temperature  of  the  sun  two  and  one  fifth  degrees 
annually.  During  the  human  period  of  6000  years,  the 
temperature  would  have  been  reduced  more  than  19,000 
decrees.  At  such  a  rate  of  cooling  it  is  obvious  that  the 
sun  must  speedily  cease  to  warm  our  planet  sufficiently  to 
sustain  vegetable  and  animal  life.  But  it  is  certain  that 
the  sun's  high  temperature  has  been  maintained  during 
almost  countless  ages  anterior  to  the  commencement  of  the 
human  era.  Those  Titanic  reptiles  which  could  luxuriate 
only  under  tropical  warmth  flourished  a  hundred  thousand 
years  before  the  world  was  prepared  for  man;  and  those 
rank,  umbrageous  ferns,  whose  forms  we  trace  upon  the 
roof-shales  of  a  coal  mine,  existed  before  the  reptile  horde, 
and  purified  the  air  for  their  respiration. 

What  unseen  cause  has  perpetuated,  for  a  million  of 
years,  those  solar  fires  ?  Kepler  asserted  that  the  firma- 
ment is  as  full  of  comets  as  the  sea  is  of  fishes,  and  Newton 
conjectured  that  these  comets  are  the  fuel-carriers  of  the 
sun.  Alas !  we  only  know  that  the  wandering  comet, 
though  flying  in  tantalizing  proximity  to  the  sun,  but  ac- 
celerates its  speed  and  hurries  onward,  as  virtue  hastens 
past  the  vortex  of  ruin.  Is  it  a  chemical  action  which 
maintains  the  solar  heat  ?  The  most  efficient  chemical  ac- 
tion for  this  purpose  is  combustion.  Now,  if  the  sun  were 
a  solid  mass  of  coal,  its  combustion  would  only  suffice  for 
the  brief  space  of  forty-six  centuries  to  replenish  the  solar 
system  with  its  vivifying  influence.  Is  it  the  effect  of  the 
sun's  rotation  on  his  axis?  Such  rotation  could  generate 
no  heat  without  the  resistance  of  another  body.  »Even  if 
that  other  body  were  present,  a  calculation  based  upon  the 
sun's  mass  and  his  rate  of  rotation  shows  that  the  heat 
generated  could  only  supply  the  expenditure  for  the  space 
of  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  years. 

There  exists,  nevertheless,  a  means  of  recuperation  to  the 
S 


410 


SKETCHES   OF  GEE  AT  10  K 


solar  energy.  It  is  not  an  exhaustless  resource,  but  it  pro- 
longs materially  the  period  of  the  sun's  activity.  Though 
no  pomet  has  been  known  to  fall  into  the  sun,  it  is  now  gen- 
erally admitted  that  cosmical  matter  is  raining  down  upon 
the  sun  from  every  direction. 

Besides  the  planetary  and  cometary  bodies  which  re- 
volve about  the  sun,  it  is  now  demonstrated  that  the  inter- 
planetary spaces  are  occupied  by  smaller  masses  of  matter, 
from  the  size  of  a  meteorite  to  particles  of  cosmical  dust. 
These  all  are  flowing  about  the  sun  in  a  circling  stream, 
but  forever  approaching  nearer  and  nearer,  until  they  are 
gradually  drawn  into  the  solar  fires.  The  showers  of  me- 
teoric hail  which  pelt  our  earth  at  certain  periods  of  the 
year  are  merely  cosmical  bodies  that  have  been  diverted 
from  their  path  by  the  proximity  of  the  earth  in  certain 
parts  of  her  orbit.  That  faint  cone  of  light  which  streams 
upward  from  the  setting  or  the  rising  sun,  near  the  time 
of  the  equinoxes,  is  but  a  zone  of  planetary  dust  illumina- 
ted by  the  sun's  rays — a  shower  of  matter  descending  upon 
the  solar  orb,  and  rendered  visible  to  us,  like  the  rain  sent 
down  from  a  summer  cloud  and  projected  upon  the  clear 
heavens  beyond. 

Arrested  motion  becomes  heat.  The  blacksmith's  ham- 
mer warms  the  cold  iron.  A  meteorite  falling  through  the 
earth's  atmosphere  develops  so  much  friction  as  to  gener- 
ate heat  sufficient  to  dissipate  the  body  into  vapor.  One 
of  these  cosmical  bodies  falling  upon  the  sun  must,  by 
the  concussion,  produce  about  7000  times  as  much  heat  is 
would  be  generated  by  an  equal  mass  of  coal.  It  is  thus 
that  the  enormously  high  temperature  of  our  sun  is  main- 
tained. 

But  the  very  mention  of  this  source  of  recuperation  of 
exhausted  solar  energy  suggests  a  limit  to  the  process. 
For  how  many  ages  can  the  cosmical  matter  within  the 


THE  SUN  COOLING   OFF.  411 

limits  of  the  solar  system  be  rained  down  upon  the  sun 
without  complete  exhaustion  ?  The  space  inclosed  by  the 
orbit  of  Neptune  is  not  infinite.  The  supply  of  cosmical 
matter  is  but  a  finite  quantity.  Time  enough  will  drain 
the  bounds  of  the  solar  system  of  all  its  wandering  parti- 
cles of  planetary  dust.  What  then  will  be  the  fate  of  the 
sun  ?  * 

The  conviction  can  not  be  resisted  that  the  processes 
going  forward  before  our  eyes  aim  directly  at  the  final  ex- 
tinction of  the  solar  fire.  Helmholtz  says :  "  The  inexora- 
ble laws  of  mechanics  show  that  the  store  of  heat  in  the 
sun  must  be  finally  exhausted."  What  a  conception  over- 
shadows and  overpowers  the  mind !  We  are  forced  to 
contemplate  the  slow  waning  of  that  beneficent  orb  whose 
vivid  light  and  cheering  warmth  animate  and  vivify  the 
circuit  of  the  solar  system.  For  ages  past  unbounded 
gifts  have  been  wasted  through  all  the  expanding  fields  of 
space — wasted,  I  say,  since  less  than  half  a  billionth  of  his 
rays  have  fallen  upon  our  planet.  The  treasury  of  life 
and  motion  from  age  to  age  is  running  lower  and  lower. 
The  great  sun  which,  stricken  with  the  pangs  of  dissolu- 
tion, has  bravely  looked  down  with  steady  and  undimmed 
eye  upon  our  earth  ever  since  organization  first  bloomed 
upon  it,  is  nevertheless  a  dying  existence.  The  pelting 
rain  of  cosmical  matter  descending  upon  his  surface  can 
only  retard,  for  a  limited  time,  the  encroachments  of  the 
mortal  rigors,  as  friction  may  perpetuate,  for  a  few  brief 
moments,  the  vital  warmth  of  a  dying  man.  The  time  is 
coming  when  the  July  sun  will  shine  with  a  paler  light 
than  he  now  gives  us  at  the  winter  solstice.  The  nations 
of  men,  if  they  still  exist,  will  have  emigrated  from  the 
temperate  to  the  equatorial  regions.  New  diseases  will 
have  diminished  their  numbers.  Polar  frost  will  have 
•  crept  stealthily  and  steadily  from  Behring's  Straits  to  the 


J12  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

Gulf  of  Mexico.  Continental  glaciers  will  again  have 
brooded  over  the  land.  The  prairie  blossom  will  have  per- 
ished beneath  a  mantle  of  snow  as  limitless  as  now  the 
prairie  expanse.  The  fluent  rivers  will  have  been  chained 
to  their  rocky  banks.  The  ruins  of  great  cities  will  be  be- 
moaned by  wintry  winds  howling  past  in  rage  at  the  pres- 
ence of  unending  frost.  If  yet  a  narrow  belt  remains  where 
sickly  verdure  maintains  the  desperate  conflict  with  the 
powers  of  cold,  it  is  a  dwarfed  and  arctic  vegetation.  The 
magnolia  has  given  place  to  the  birch.  The  cypress  has 
been  supplanted  by  the  lichen-covered  fir.  The  emerald 
has  departed  from  the  shivering  leaf,  and  even  the  hardy 
violet  is  pale  unto  death.  All  things  have  assumed  a  faded 
and  leaden  hue.  The  Mongolian  is  not  known  from  the 
Caucasian.  Even  the  sooty  negro,  if  he  be  not  extinct, 
blanched  from  the  want  of  light  and  heat,  can  only  be  rec- 
ognized by  his  features.  Pale,  thin,  and  feeble,  the  shiver- 
ing remnant  of  humanity  "have  gathered  themselves  to- 
gether into  compact  communities  for  economy  of  vital 
warmth.  Forests  are  consumed  to  thaw  the  soil.  Tem- 
ples, costly  structures — the  patient  rearing  of  the  golden 
ages  of  the  race — are  pulled  down  to  eke  out  the  scanty 
supply  of  fuel.  Men  return  to  caves,  whence  they  came  in 
the  beginning.  Nature  has  become  their  enemy.  Science 
and  art  are  forgotten.  The  page  which  narrates  the  glory 
of  the  nineteenth  century  is  like  the  narrative  which  tells 
us  of  the  labors  of  the  men  upon  the  plains  of  Shinar. 
Year  by  year  the  populations  become  less — year  by  year 
the  dread  empire  of  frost  is  extended.  Forests  have  been 
consumed  ;  cities  have  been  burned ;  navies  have  rotted  in 
the  deserted,  ice-locked  harbors ;  men  have  immured  them- 
selves in  gloomy  caverns  till  they  have  almost  lost  the 
forms  of  humanity. 

The  end  arrives.     Unless  some  sudden  catastrophe  slialf 


THE  SUN  COOLimO   OFF.  413 

sweep  the  race  from  being  in  a  day,  the  time  will  come 
when  two  men  will  alone  survive  of  all  the  human  race. 
Two  men  will  look  around  upon  the  ruins  of  the  workman- 
ship of  a  mighty  people.  Two  men  will  gaze  upon  the 
tombs  of  the  human  family.  Two  men  will  stand  petrified 
at  the  sight  of  perhaps  a  hundred  thousand  corpses  pros- 
trated around  them  by  the  dire  hardships  which  every  mo- 
ment threaten  to. carry  them  also  away.  These  two  men 
will  gaze  into  each  other's  faces — wan,  thin,  hungry,  shiv- 
ering, despairing.  Speech  will  have  deserted  them.  Si- 
lent, gazing  each  into  eternity — more  dead  than  living — an 
overpowering  emotion — an  inspiring  hope — and  one  of 
them  drops  by  the  feet  of  the  sole  survivor  of  God's  intel- 
ligent race. 

Who  can  say  what  a  tide  of  reflections  will  rush  for  an 
instant  through  the  soul  of  the  last  man  ?  Who  shall  list- 
en to  his  voice,  if  he  speaks  ?  On  whose  ear  shall  fall  the 
accents  of  his  sorrow,  his  wonder,  or  his  hope  ?  Thrice 
honored,  thrice  exalted  man !  He  stands  there  to  testify 
for  all  mankind.  On  him  has  been  devolved  the  unique 
duty  of  uttering  the  farewell  of  our  race  to  its  ancient  and 
much-loved  home.     In  what  words  will  he  say  farewell  ? 

The  last  man  has  composed  his  body  to  eternal  rest. 
The  once  fair  earth  is  a  cold  and  desolate  corse.  Nature's 
tears  are  ice ;  she  weeps  no  more.  The  face  of  the  sun  is 
veiled.  It  is  midnight  in  the  highways  of  the  planets. 
The  spirits  of  heaven  mourn  at  the  funeral  of  Nature. 

Let  not  the  reader  be  distressed  at  this  picture.  The 
last  two  men  will  be  neither  our  children  nor  our  children's 
children.  Our  thoughts  have  been  wandering  through  cy- 
cles of  years.  The  clock  of  eternity  ticks  not  seconds,  but 
centuries.  We  shall  not  anxiously  measure  the  sun's  in- 
tensity from  day  to  day,  nor  from  year  to  year,  lest  we  be 
able  to  discover  his  waning  strength.     Xhe  embers  of  a 


414  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

bonfire  will  furnish  warmth  for  the  lifetime  of  an  epheme- 
ron.  A  molten  lava-stream  consumes  a  hundred  years  in 
cooling.  The  great  globe  of  the  earth,  which  is  cooling 
now  at  the  rate  of  a  degree  in  thirty-five  thousand  years, 
was  once  a  sphere  of  molten  granite,  and  has  consumed 
time  enough  to  pass  from  that  state  to  this.  The  sun  is  so 
vast  that,  though  he  began  to  cool  at  a  still  remoter  epoch, 
the  temperature  retained  to-day  is  46,000  times  as  high  as 
that  of  the  surface  of  our  planet.  The  epoch  when  his 
rays  will  be  sensibly  weakened  is  at  a  distance  expressed 
by  millions  of  years. 

What  thoughts  rise  upon  us  as  we  utter  these  words ! 
We  hang  here  upon  our  planet,  poised  in  the  midst  of  in- 
finite space  and  infinite  time.  Whence  we  came,  we  know 
not ;  whither  we  are  bound,  hope  and  faith  only  can  re- 
veal. We  open  our  eyes  for  a  moment,  like  an  infant  in 
its  sleep,  and  anon  they  are  closed ;  or,  perchance,  like  the 
waking  somnambulist,  in  his  fall  from  the  house-top  to  the 
jmvement,  we  rouse  to  an  instant's  consciousness  of  the 
rush  of  events  and  the  coming  crash — and  the  busy  activ- 
ities of  Nature  move  on  as  if  we  had  not  existed. 

A  few  days  since,  a  friend  of  mine  exhibited  to  me  a  sil- 
ver coin  dug  up  from  the  rubbish  of  the  hoary  East.  It 
was  rude,  irregular,  and  begrimed  with  age.  Upon  one 
side  was  raised  the  image  of  a  Grecian  warrior.  Above 
the  head  I  could  trace,  with  difficulty,  but  with  certainty, 
the  Greek  letters  which  spelled  the  name  of  Alexander. 
Venerable  coin  !  thought  I ;  and  my  imagination  wandered 
back  through  twenty-two  centuries,  till  I  saw  the  Issus 
and  the  Granicus,  and  the  hosts  of  Darius  melting  before 
the  fury  of  the  Macedonian  conqueror.  I  felt  transported 
back  to  antiquity.  But  then  I  remembered  the  Nineveh 
marbles  upon  which  I  had  gazed,  and  the  black  and  skinny 
mummies  that  had  looked  out  at  me  from  their  withered 


TEE  SUN  COOLING   OFF.  415 

eyeballs,  and  imagination  spanned  another  interval  of 
ages ;  and  I  stood  upon  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Nile,  and  the  forms  of  Sennacherib,  and  Menes,  and  Moses 
passed  before  me.  As  chance  would  have  it,  I  returned, 
and,  passing  through  a  cabinet  where  the  "  medals  of  crea- 
tion" had  been  ranged  in  regular  order,  the  ponderous  mo- 
lars Of  an  extinct  mammoth,  dug  from  the  soil  of  Michigan, 
awakened  a  new  thought.  By  its  side  rested  the  skull  of 
Oreodon,  with  its  sheep-like  teeth  in  a  hog-like  head ;  and, 
being  in  a  mood  for  re  very,  I  thought  of  the  distant  Mis- 
souri plains  where  Oreodon  had  grazed;  and  of  the  vast 
lake — thrice  the  size  of  Superior — from  whose  water  he  had 
drank,  and  on  whose  muddy  banks  had  crawled  turtles 
that  could  carry  oxen  on  their  backs.  And  then  I  remem- 
bered that  thought  had  darted  back  over  another  stretch 
of  ages  to  a  time  when  God  had  not  yet  said, "  Let  us  make 
man,"  when  the  wide  continent  was  the  pasture-ground  of 
elephants,  and  mastodons,  and  wild  horses,  and  camels,  and 
sloths,  and  quadrupeds  of  strange  shapes  which  were  blot- 
ted out  of  existence  before  ever  human  eye  had  gazed  upon 
them. 

Here,  I  thought,  are  the  relics  of  a  genuine  antiquity.  I 
sauntered  on,  and  the  teeth,  and  vertebrae,  and  dimly-out- 
lined forms  of  Ichthyosaurs,  and  Deinosaurs,  and  flying  liz- 
ards, and  fishes  clad  in  mail — bucklered  and  helmeted  fishes 
— these  in  succession  passed  before  my  eyes.  And  then 
winged  thoughts  flew  back  through  those  dim  ages  of  the 
world's  history  which  we  call  Mesozoic.  I  breathed  a  sti- 
fling atmosphere ;  tepid  vapors  rose  all  around  me ;  strange 
foliage  fringed  bayous  of  which  I  had  never  heard ;  neither 
bird  nor  insect  stirred  the  fervid  atmosphere ;  there  were 
no  forests ;  the  continents  were  but  just  arising  from  their 
sea-couches,  and  no  footprint  had  yet  been  impressed  upon 
their  slime-covered  heads.     And  then  I  thought  again  of 


416  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 

the  silver  coin  which  bore  the  image  and  superscription  of 
Alexander,  and  wondered  why  I  had  called  it  venerable. 
Why  ?  since  twenty  populations  had  possessed  the  earth, 
since  the  relics  of  those  bucklered  fishes  had  been  animate, 
and  this  coin — why,  it  had  been  stamped  in  the  last  part 
of  the  lifetime  of  the  twentieth  population ;  and  there  were 
nineteen  before  it  which  had  become  extinct. 

And  so  my  feet  were  lifted  up  from  earth;  I  was  pil- 
lowed upon  a  bright  cloud,  and  floated  in  eternity.  And  I 
saw  the  long  history  of  the  world  I  had  left  stretching- 
backward  from  the  spot  where  I  had  left  it,  till  it  vanished 
from  view,  like  the  track  of  a  railroad  on  the  boundless 
prairie.  With  the  flash  of  a  thought,  I  pursued  it  over 
millions  of  ages,  till  I  saw  it  dissolved  in  fire — till  luminous 
vapors  rolled  up  and  rested  upon  the  bosom  of  infinite 
space.  In  this  cloud  of  fire  the  track  of  terrestrial  history 
lost  itself,  and  I  dared  not  plunge  through  the  flame  in 
search  of  a  beginning. 

Then  I  thought,  here  at  length  is  the  dwelling-place  of 
antiquity.  What  is  this  which  men  call  ancient  and  ven- 
erable? Would  that  the  scales  could  be  removed  from 
our  eyes !  Would  that  the  fog  would  lift,  and  men  could 
once  look  out  upon  the  magnitude  of  the  universe — the 
majestic  span  even  of  terrestrial  history — the  might,  the 
greatness,  the  wisdom,  the  glory  of  that  Intelligence  which, 
at  a  glance,  takes  in  all  space,  all  time  past,  and  all  time  to 
come ! 


MACHINERY  OF  THE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN  417 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE    MACHINERY    OP   THE    HEAVENS    RUNNING   DOWN. 

ET  the  earth  have  frozen ;  let  the  bright  sun  have  been 
'-"  extinguished ;  let  the  moon  and  stars  "  wander  dark- 
ling in  the  eternal  space."  Will  this,  then,  be  the  end  of 
matter's  history?  Is  this  the  consummation  of  which  phi- 
losophers, and  poets,  and  patriarchs  have  dreamed  and 
prophesied?  From  the  pinnacle  on  which  we  stand  we 
can  discern  the  course  of  Nature  still  wending  onward. 
There  must  be  progress  even  after  the  funeral  of  the  sun. 
As  that  bright  luminary  shines  on  after  the  fall  of  genera- 
tions of  men — as  he  shines  serenely  and  undisturbed  even 
in  dead  men's  faces,  so  will  gravitation  continue  to  prose- 
cute its  work  even  among  the  corpses  of  plaiKts  and  suns. 

Hark !  from  the  highways  of  the  comets  come  tidings  of 
friction  in  the  machinery  of  the  heavens.  The  filmy  wan- 
derer encounters  resistance  in  his  long  journey  to  the  con- 
fines of  the  solar  system.  He  plows  his  way  through  a  re- 
sisting medium.  The  balance  of  centripetal  and  centrifu- 
gal forces  is  destroyed;  the  central  attraction  preponder- 
ates ;  he  falls  toward  the  sun ;  his  orbit  is  diminished ;  his 
motion  is  accelerated,  and  he  comes  back  to  his  starting- 
point  earlier  than  the  time  which  astronomy  had  appointed. 
Here  we  get  the  first  disclosure  of  the  existence  of  a  sub- 
tile material  fluid  pervading  space. 

This  remarkable  retardation  was  first  observed  in  the 
successive  returns  of  Encke's  comet.  This  comet  has  at 
present  a  period  of  about  1210  days,  and  it  returns  each 
time  two  hours  and  forty-five  minutes  sooner  than  calcula- 


418  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

tion  requires.  Since  1789,  its  period  has  shortened  two 
days  and  sixteen  hours.  .  Similar  retardation — resulting  in 
a  similarly  accelerated  angular  velocity — has  been  fully  es- 
tablished in  the  cases  of  the  comets  of  Brorsen,  Faye,  and 
D'Arrest. 

The  only  explanation  that  has  ever  been  offered  of  these 
exceptional  phenomena  is  the  assumption  of  the  existence 
of  an  all-pervading  resisting  medium  commonly  called 
ether.  Since  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  became  estab- 
lished, the  existence  of  such  a  medium  has  been  recognized 
as  necessary,  and  its  presence  has  been  assumed  throughout 
all  those  realms  of  space  to  which  light  has  penetrated. 

A  belief  in  the  existence  of  an  all-pervading  ether  is 
much  more  ancient  than  the  observations  which  have  made 
it  a  scientific  datum.  In  the  astronomy  of  the  Brahmins, 
the  stars  are  said  to  swim  in  ether,  as  fishes  in  the  water, 
Kepler  supposed  comets  to  be  native  inhabitants  of  this 
ethereal  medium,  like  fishes  in  the  sea.  The  Cartesian  doc- 
trine of  "  voatices"  presupposes  an  all-pervading  material 
fluid.  The  existence  of  such  a  fluid  was  admitted  by  New- 
ton ;  and  he  demonstrates  that  its  tenuity  must  be  greater 
than  that  of  our  atmosphere  at  the  distance  of  two  hundred 
miles  from  the  earth.  In  more  recent  times  this  doctrine 
has  been  maintained  or  admitted  by  Whewell,  Sir  John 
Herschel,  Thompson,  Mayer,  Littrow,  Helmholtz,  Grove, 
Tyndal,  Watson,  McCosh,  Comte,  Rorison,  and,  in  short,  by 
every  physicist  who  has  investigated  the  subject. 

We  are  compelled,  then,  to  assume  the  position  that  a  re- 
sisting fluid  permeates  space,  and  that  the  heavenly  bodies 
do  not  move  in  a  vacuum.  The  consequences  of  this  ad- 
mission are  stupendous  beyond  conception.  Laplace  dem- 
onstrated that  if  the  planetary  bodies  are  solid,  and  if  they 
move  in  vacuo,  their  mutual  perturbations,  in  long  cycles, 
compensate  each  other,  and  the  stability  of  the  solar  sys- 


MACHINERY  OF  THE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN  41 9 

tem  is  perfect.  The  contingent  part  of  this  proposition 
possesses  all  the  significance.  Neither  are  the  planetary 
bodies  solid,  nor  do  they  move  in  vacuo.  The  effect  of  the 
terrestrial  liquids  is  apparent  in  a  considerable  lengthening 
of  the  sidereal  day — which,  for  the  time  being,  is  counter- 
poised by  the  shrinkage  of  the  earth — while  the  effect  of 
the  resisting  medium  has  been  wrought  out  in  the  partial 
arrest  of  the  whole  brood  of  comets. 

The  retardation  of  Encke's  comet  is  such  that  it  would 
lose  one  half  of  its  present  velocity  in  23,000  years.  A 
power  which  can  sensibly  check  the  flight  of  the  filmy  com- 
et can  also  retard,  however  minutely,  the  motion  of  the 
ponderous  planet.  Jupiter,  by  far  the  largest  of  the  plan- 
ets, would  lose  one  thousandth  of  his  velocity  in  seventy 
millions  of  years.  The  length  of  the  period  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  result.  If  the  motion  be  inevita- 
bly and  perpetually  toward  precipitation  into  the  sun,  the 
event  is  as  demonstrable  as  the  fall  of  an  aerolite  to  the 
earth.  Not  only  are  the  cloud-like  comets  slowly  ap- 
proaching the  sun  in  spiral  curves,  but  every  revolving 
planet — every  material  particle  in  the  solar  system — is 
borne  forward  by  the  same  unalterable  decree.  It  is  the 
presence  of  a  resisting  ether  which  conditions  the  precipi- 
tation of  that  meteoric  rain  which  retards  the  cooling  of 
the  sun.  The  fall  of  comets  and  planets  to  the  sun  will 
still  farther  delay  the  final  refrigeration  of  that  luminary, 
without  averting  it. 

The  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  resisting  ether  in  space 
has  disclosed  the  decree  which  records  the  doom  of  the 
solar  system.  Whewell  says :  "  Since  there  is  such  a  retard- 
ing force  perpetually  acting,  however  slight  it  be,  it  must 
in  the  end  destroy  all  the  celestial  motions.  *  *  *  The 
moment  such  a  fluid  is  ascertained  to  exist,  the  eternity  of 
the  movements  of  the  planets  becomes  as  impossible  as  a 


420 


SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 


perpetual  motion  on  the  earth."  Helmholtz  says:  "A  time 
will  come  when  the  comet  will  strike  the  sun ;  and  a  simi- 
lar end  threatens  all  the  planets,  although  after  a  time  the 
length  of  which  baffles  our  imagination  to  conceive  it." 
Mayer  contemplates  the  precipitation  of  asteroidal  and 
planetary  masses  upon  the  sun.  Comte  says:  "In  a  future 
too  remote  to  be  assigned,  all  the  bodies  of  our  system 
must  be  united  to  the  solar  mass,  from  which  it  is  probable 
that  they  proceeded."  Rorison,  defending  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  creation,  admits,  speaking  of  the  earth :  "  It  was 
once  all  nebula ;  it  will  yet,  if  left  to  physical  agencies,  col- 
lapse into  an  exhausted  and  extinguished  sun."  Watson 
says :  "  If  we  grant  that  the  retardation  of  the  comets 
arises  from  the  existence  of  an  ethereal  fluid,  the  total  ob- 
literation of  the  solar  system  is  to  be  the  final  result." 

This,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  science.  So  far  as  we 
have  been  able  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  movements  of  the  planetary  bodies,  the  dura- 
tion of  the  present  order  of  the  solar  system  is  finite. 
Nothing  but  an  infinite  miracle  can  save  it  from  destruc- 
tion. That  such  a  miracle  will  be  wrought  we  have  no 
warrant  for  assuming.  From  the  very  beginning  of  its 
career,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  history  of  matter  has 
been  wrought  out  in  accordance  with  methods  which  we 
style  the  "  laws  of  Nature."  These  methods  have  never 
been  abandoned,  and  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence 
furnished  by  science  that  they  ever  will  be  abandoned  un- 
til they  shall  have  completed  their  work.  Whether  the 
forces  of  matter  be  viewed  as  inherent  powers  or  as  "  im- 
mediate divine  agency,"  the  argument  from  induction,  in 
which  the  doctrine  of  a  final  catastrophe  rests,  is  an  argu- 
ment possessing  strength  beyond  the  power  of  arithmetic 
to  express. 

It  is  true  that  the  final  catastrophe  is  removed  to  the 


MACHINERY  OF  THE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN  421 

distance  of  millions  of  millions  of  years.  It  is  true  that 
the  sun  may  have  cooled  millions  of  years  before  the  con- 
summation of  the  final  crash.  It  is  true  that  a  million  of 
years  before  the  cooling  of  the  sun  the  earth  may  have  be- 
come desolate  and  tenantless,  as  it  was  a  million  of  years 
before  it  received  its  first  inhabitant,  or  as  the  moon  is  to- 
day, poised  in  space  before  our  very  eyes.  It  is  true  that 
thousands  of  years  may  yet  elapse  before  the  ordinary 
powers  of  geology  shall  have  leveled  the  continents,  or 
changed  their  habitable  conditions  to  such  an  extent  that 
man  and  other  organic  beings  will  have  passed  away.  But 
the  magnitude  of  the  numbers  by  which  these  intervals  of 
time  are  symbolized  does  not  embarrass  the  argument.  In- 
finity dwells  not  alone  in  years.  Are  the  recitals  of  Astron- 
omy less  fanciful  than  these  ?  Are  the  data  with  which  she 
deals  less  staggering  to  the  human  mind  ?  We  think  our- 
selves dwelling  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  sun, 
since,  perchance,  his  light  comes  to  us  in  eight  and  a  half 
minutes.  Yet  his  distance  is  such  that  a  traveler,  setting 
out  for  the  sun  by  railway  on  the  day  of  his  birth,  and 
traveling  continually  thirty  miles  an  hour,  would  attain 
the  age  of  fourscore  before  having  spanned  one  fourth  of 
the  vast  interval.  Were  he  and  his  posterity  to  complete 
the  journey,  and  were  generations  to  succeed  each  other 
according  to  the  established  rule,  the  twelfth  generation 
would  appear  before  the  station  should  be  reached.  The 
great  luminary  would  be  pressed  by  the  foot  of  his  great- 
grandson's  great-grandson's  great-grandson,  and  he  would 
be  upon  the  tottering  verge  of  fourscore.  Had  Christopher 
Columbus  set  sail  for  the  sun  instead  of  a  new  continent, 
and  traveled  continuously  at  three  times  the  speed  of  a 
steam-ship,  he  would  only  have  reached  his  destination 
this  year.  This  is  the  distance  which  light  travels  over 
in  eight  and  a  half  minutes.    There  is  no  doubt  admissible 


422  SKETCHES   OF  C  RE  ATI  OX. 

in  regard  to  the  distance  of  the  sun  from  the  earth,  or  the 
velocity  of  light,  and  yet  the  nearest  of  the  fixed  stars  is  so 
remote  that  its  light  has  consumed  ten  years  in  passing  to 
our  earth ;  and  there  are  visible  stars  so  distant  that  their 
light  has  occupied  the  lifetime  of  our  race  in  darting  over 
the  measureless  void.  In  each  second  of  that  interval  it 
lias"  traveled  a  distance  measured  by  seven  times  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  earth.  Nay,  I  may  gaze  through  the 
telescope  on  any  star-lit  night,  and  gather  into  my  eye 
rays  which  set  out  from  a  distant  nebula  ages  before  even 
the  race  was  called  into  being  whose  slowly-developing 
science  has  enabled  me  to  make  these  calculations  and 
gather  up  this  feeble  light. 

These  are  values  which  the  positive  science  of  astronomy 
affords  us.  Nor  are  the  wonders  of  physics  less  overwhelm- 
ing. The  amount  of  heat  sent  off  from  the  sun  in  one  min- 
ute is,  according  to  Mayer,  12,650  millions  of  "cubic  miles 
of  heat."  Now  what  is  a  cubic  mile  of  heat  ?  In  the  con- 
ventional language  of  the  physicists,  it  is  the  quantity  of 
heat  necessary  to  raise  the  temperature  of  a  cubic  mile  of 
water  one  degree  Centigrade.  Have  we  any  conception  of 
the  amount  of  heat  required  to  do  this  work  ?  In  order  to 
subdivide  the  quantity  till  we  reach  a  limit  which  our  in- 
tellects can  grasp,  let  me  state  that  one  cubic  mile  of  heat 
contains  408  billions  of  units  of  heat;  and  a  unit  of  heat  is 
the  quantity  of  heat  required  to  raise  one  kilogramme — or 
about  one  quart — of  water  one  Centigrade  degree,  which  is 
one  and  four  fifths  degree  of  our  scale.  In  other  words, 
then,  the  sun  emits  more  than  five  septillions,  or  five  thou- 
sand millions  of  millions  of  units  of  heat  every  minute.  •  In 
a  year  the  amount  is  522,000  times  as  great;  and  in  the  brief 
duration  of  our  race  it  has  been  more  than  three  thousand 
million  times  seven  septillions  of  units  of  heat.  These,  let 
the  reader  remember,  are  the  data  of  exact  science.     They 


MACHINERY  OF  THE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN  423 

are  not  the  millions  of  years  in  which  the  geologist  sym- 
bolizes the  age  of  the  world. 

Nature  thus,  on  every  side,  launches  us  forth  upon  the 
borders  of  infinity.  We  flutter  about  like  insects  on  a 
flower-bed,  and  stand  awed  before  the  "  boundless  prairie," 
the  "primeval  forest,"  or  the  "shoreless  ocean."  We  speak 
of  planetary  distances  and  stellar  pathways,  but  our  efforts 
to  compass  thoughts  like  these  are  as  the  navigation  of  the 
paper  nautilus  upon  the  heaving  bosom  of  the  broad  Pa- 
cific. 

And  yet  such  quantities  are  not  imaginary.  Such  inter- 
vals as  millions  of  ages  will  be  passed;  such  intervals  have 
already  passed.  To  the  eye  of  that  all-comprehending  In- 
telligence whose  works  these  are,  whose  plans  these  are, 
millions  are  but  molecules  in  the  constitution  of  a  uni- 
verse ;  the  lifetime  of  a  planet  vanishes  as  a  thought.  To 
a  being  who  is  Infinity,  the  very  "units  of  measurement  are 
infinity ;  one  stroke  of  the  hand  is  infinite  space,  one  step 
of  progress  is  infinite  time. 

Where,  then,  is  perpetuity  ?  The  untutored  savage  looks 
upon  the  ancient  forest  as  all-enduring.  His  fathers  sat  be- 
neath the  s"hade  of  the  self-same  tree  as  stretches  its  arms 
above  his  own  squalid  hut.  The  poet  sings  of  the  "eternal 
hills,"  or  fancies  that  in  the  ocean  he  discerns  "  the  image 
of  eternity."  The  philosopher  thought  he  had  demonstra- 
ted that  at  least  the  solid  earth  should  endure  forever,  and 
the  coterie  of  planets  should  not  cease  to  waltz  about  their 
sun.  But  at  length  we  discover  not  only  that  forests  ap- 
pear and  disappear — not  only  that  the  mountains  crumble 
away  from  age  to  age,  and  Old  Ocean  himself  has  limits  set 
to  his  duration — but  even  yonder  burning  sun  is  slowly 
waning,  and  the  very  earth  is  wearily  plodding  through 
the  mire  of  ether,  and  we  can  foresee  the  time  when,  with 
all  her  energies  wasted,  the  fire  of  her  youth  extinguished, 


424  SKETCHES    OF  CREATION. 

•her  blood  curdled  in  her  veins,  her  sister  planets  in  their 
graves  or  hurrying  toward  them,  she  herself  shall  plunge 
again  into  the  bosom  of  her  parent  sun,  whence,  unnum- 
bered ages  since,  she  whirled  forth  with  all  the  gayety  of  a 
youthful  bride. 

Such  is  the  position  to  which  science  conducts  us.  We 
feel  that  we  stand  here  upon  sure  foundations.  We  have 
no  means  of  measuring  accurately  the  length  of  eternity's 
years,  but  we  know  they  exceed  ours  a  million-fold.  We 
can  clearly  translate  the  watchword  of  the  hosts  of  space. 
"  Not  for  perpetuity"  is  written  upon  every  lineament  of 
the  solar  system.  We  contemplate  the  matter  of  the  sys- 
tem aggregated  into  a  cold  and  blackened  mass  at  the 
centre.  No  more  sun,  no  more  planet,  no  more  satellite, 
no  more  comet,  or  metorite,  or  zodiacal  luminosity,  but 
winter,  and  the  silence  of  death,  and  the  darkness  of  Na- 
ture's midnight,  penetrated  only  by  starlight,  whose  ma- 
ternal source  may  even  then  have  been  blotted  out — a  sol- 
itary grave  upon  a  distant  plain,  in  the  midst  of  the  howl- 
ing desolation  of  an  arctic  winter. 

But  imagination,  indefatigable,  with  wing  unwearied 
while  yet  there  remains  another  height  to  scaT.e,  pausing 
here  but  an  instant,  throws  her  glances  still  beyond.  Into 
that  remoter  eternity  which  stretches  still  beyond  the  sep- 
ulchre of  the  solar  system  her  vision  penetrates.  Shall  we 
venture  to  delineate  the  vicissitudes  which  she  sees  trans- 
piring in  that  deeper  depth?  They  are  the  figures  of 
things  but  faintly  limned  against  the  curtains  of  infinity. 
But  yet  there  is  no  religion  which  forbids  us  to  reproduce 
that  ethereal  vision.  Let  us  exhaust  the  revelation  of  Na- 
ture, and  seize  upon  knowledge  which  lies  next  door  to  the 
supernatural  world. 

Astronomy  calls  every  star  a  sun,  and  declares  that  our 
solar  orb  is  but  one  in  a  firmament  of  suns.     When  we 


MACHINERY  OF  THE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN  425 

gaze  at  night  upon  the  stellar  host  we  descry  the  nearest 
members  of  a  cluster  of  suns,  which,  vast  as  it  is,  has  limits 
which  have  been  surveyed.  Sir  William  Herschel,  with  the 
graduated  powers  of  his  great  telescope,  sounded  the  depths 
of  the  firmament,  and  determined  its  extent  in  every  direc- 
tion. In  the  midst  of  this  circumscribed  cluster  of  suns 
our  solar  luminary  holds  a  position. 

Beyond  the  confines  of  the  outermost  zone  of  stars  lies 
an  empty  void.  Sir  William  Herschel,  with  the  higher 
powers  of  his  instrument,  looked  through  the  loop-holes 
of  our  firmament,  and  sent  his  vision  across  the  cold  and 
desert  space  which  spreads  out  on  every  side.  The  cheer- 
ing starlight  that  had  accompanied  every  farther  stretch 
across  the  populated  fields  of  our  firmament  now  forsook 
him,  and  he  gazed  only  upon  dread  emptiness  and  black- 
ness. For  a  moment  he  imagined  he  had  caught  a  glimpse 
of  infinity ;  but  lo  !  across  that  measureless  void  appears 
another  firmament !  And  still  other  firmaments,  on  every 
side,  beam  on  us  with  a  blended  gleam  which  fuses  their 
constituent  suns  into  a  cloud.     These  are  the  nebulae. 

To  what  order  of  distances  are  they  removed?  Are  their 
histories  identical  with  the  history  of  our  firmament  ?  Is 
infinite  space  occupied  by  an  endless  succession  of  such 
starry  clusters  ?  These  are  questions  which  we  shall  find 
answered  when  thought  is  permitted  to  penetrate  one  step 
farther,  and  set  foot  within  the  bounds  of  the  supernatural 
world. 

These  systems  of  suns,  with  their  probably  attendant 
planets  and  satellites,  all  exist  under  one  constitution. 
The  spectroscope  has  demonstrated  that  the  light  of  the 
different  heavenly  bodies  is  substantially  identical.  It  has 
demonstrated  the  identity  of  the  luminous  matter  of  sun, 
and  comets,  and  stars,  and  nebulae.  It  has  declared  the 
existence  of  carbon  in  the  comets,  of  hydrogen,  potassium, 


426  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

magnesium,  and  sundry  other  bodies  in  the  sun,  and  of 
several  of  the  same  in  the  fixed  stars  and  the  nebulae. 
There  is  little  uncertainty  about  these  determinations. 
Like  an  expert  who  identifies  the  handwriting  of  a  crimi- 
nal when  he  who  penned  it  may  have  fled  a  thousand  miles 
away,  this  little  instrument,  by  an  analysis  of  light  that  has 
wandered  a  thousand  years  away  from  its  source,  declares 
the  nature  of  the  luminous  body  that  sent  it  forth.  One 
sort  of  matter  exists  throughout  all  the  wide  realm  which 
human  vision  has  traversed. 

One  ether  extends  through  all.  The  conditions  under 
which  light  is  propagated  are  identical  upon  Sirius  and  in 
the  apartment  lighted  by  a  jet  of  gas. 

Gravitation  reigns  over  all.  The  phenomena  discerned 
in  the  motions  and  phases  of  the  stars  and  the  nebulae  are 
such  as  attest  the  dominance  there  of  the  same  law  as  holds 
the  earth  in  its  orbit,  or  guides  an  apple  to  the  ground. 

The  law  of  rotation  reigns  over  all.  From  the  revolving 
moon  to  the  vicissitudes  of  the  variable  stars — winking 
night  and  day  in  regular  alternation — and  even  to  the  spi- 
ral nebulae  whose  stupendous  gyrations  have  given  shape 
to  their  flowing  vestments — every  where  the  equilibrium 
of  celestial  bodies,  like  that  of  a  top  or  a  gyroscope,  is 
maintained  by  rotation. 

Our  own  firmament  of  stars,  which  we  are  not  permitted 
to  view  as  we  view  the  nebulae,  from  a  distance,  reveals 
even  to  a  beholder  from  within  the  fact  of  its  rotation,  as 
the  progress  of  a  sloop  upon  a  river  is  revealed  by  the  ap- 
parent motions  of  the  trees  upon  the  banks..  Madler  has 
announced  the  discovery  of  the  astounding  fact  that  the 
entire  firmament  is  describing  a  slow  and  majestic  gyra- 
tion about  a  centre  which,  to  us,  seems  located  in  the  Plei- 
ades. In  this  common  whirl  of  a  million  suns  our  sun  par- 
ticipates, and,  with  his  retinue  of  planets,  moves  forward 


MACHINERY  OF  TEE  HEAVENS  RUNNING  DOWN.  427 

through  space  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  miles  a  year.  And  yet  so  vast  is  the  circuit  upon  which 
he  is  launched  that  18,200,000  years  will  have  faded  away 
before  he  shall  have  completed  a  single,  re  volution. 

If  throughout  all  these  boundless  intervals  of  space  a  re- 
sisting ether  is  present — if  it  be  a  fact  that  a  material  fluid 
pervades  all  the  wide  realms  which  light  has  traversed, 
Avhat  is  the  conclusion  which  looms  up  as  a  consequence? 
Are  we  not  compelled  to  recognize  the  fact  that  every  sun 
in  our  firmament,  as  it  journeys  round  and  round  in  its  cir- 
cuit of  millions  of  years,  is  slowly,  but  surely  as  Encke's 
comet,  approaching  the  centre  of  its  orbit  ?  And  in  that 
most  distant  future,  the  contemplation  of  which  almost  par- 
alyzes our  powers  of  thought,  is  it  not  certain  that  all  these 
suns  must  be  piled  together  in  a  cold  and  lifeless  mass  ? 

I  forbear  to  say  more.  With  reverence  I  refrain  from 
the  attempt  to  lift  the  veil  which  conceals  the  destiny  of 
other  firmaments.  I  dare  not  hazard  the  inquiry  whether 
an  immensity  of  firmaments  may  not  be  executing  their 
grand  gyrations  on  a  still  larger  scale ;  and  whether  these, 
in  turn,  may  not  be  destined  to  a  grander  cosmical  con- 
glomeration. It  is  vain  to  push  our  conjectures  farther. 
We  have  even  here  entered  upon  the  border-land  of  infinite 
space.  In  the  presence  of  Infinity,  what  can  man  do  but 
bow  his  head  and  worship  ? 

Reason  assures  us  that  somewhere  the  tendency  to  cen- 
tral aggregation  must  be  stayed.  A  universe  of  worlds 
can  never  be  gathered  together  in  a  single  mass.  Within 
the  bounds  of  the  visible  we  see  all  matter  wending  its 
way  toward  centres  of  gravity.  Within  the  bounds  of  our 
firmament  we  see  all  matter  tending  toward  one  centre. 
Let  us  content  ourselves  to  speak  of  this.  This  shall  be 
our  universe.  This  is  the  universe  whose  final  aggrega- 
tion into  one  mass  we  are  compelled  to  contemplate. 


428  SKETCHES   OF  CREATION. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

THE    CYCLES    OF    MATTER. 

OF  what,  now,  is  this  stupendous  result  the  conse- 
quence ?  This  is  the  goal  toward  which,  for  millions 
of  ages,  the  forces  of  matter  have  been  struggling.  During 
every  moment  of  this  long  history,  gravitation  has  striven 
to  draw  these  myriads  of  worlds  together.  They  have  em- 
braced each  other  at  last,  and  gravitation  has  retired  to 
slumber.  While  yet  these  worlds  were  in  active  life,  every 
sun  was  a  heated  globe,  dispensing  warmth  through  infinite 
space ;  and  every  planet  may  have  been  the  seat  of  life, 
enjoying  the  boundless  munificence  of  heat.  As  lpng  as 
heat  remained  to  be  dispensed  to  planetary  orbs,  they  were 
the  seat  of  all  those  myriad  activities  of  which  solar  heat 
is  the  origin  and  source — currents  in  the  atmosphere  and 
in  the  waters — ascending  vapors  and  descending  rains — 
the  nurture  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  and  motions — the 
disintegration  of  continents,  and  the  strewing  of  ocean  bot- 
toms with  layers  of  sediments  for  the  upbuilding  of  new 
continents.  Through  numberless  interactions  of  heat,  and 
electricity,  and  light,  and  magnetism,  and  mechanical  forces, 
and  chemical  affinity,  the  web  of  material  and  organic  his- 
tory was  woven.  The  equilibrium  of  the  heat  of  our  uni- 
verse has  now  been  attained.  ~No  farther  interactions  and 
transformations  can  ensue.  Every  particle  of  matter  is 
equally  cold.  Every  corner  of  space  is  equally  dark.  The 
electricities  that  have  been  worried  with  disturbances  and 
divorces  innumerable  are  now  firmly  locked  in  each  other's 
embraces.     Every  chemical  element  has  united  with  its 


THE  CYCLES  OF  MATTER.  429 

first  choice.  There  can  be  no  farther  decompositions  or 
recompositions.  The  forces  of  matter  have  spent  them- 
selves. After  a  fierce  conflict,  they  lie  mutually  slain,  upon 
a  long-contested  battle-field.'  The  struggle  is  ended — noth- 
ing stirs — night  comes  down  and  casts  her  pall  over  the 
corse  of  matter. 

From  this  exit  of  material  existence  we  shrink  back  to 
the  times  in  which  we  live,  and  inquire,  What  are  all  the 
myriad  activities  of  the  passing  world — what  are  rolling 
tides,  and  surging  waves,  and  ocean  streams — what  are 
mountain  births,  and  volcanic  eructations,  and  continental 
throes — what  are  wasted  lands,  and  Niagara  gorges,  and 
ocean  sediments — what  are  worn-out  continents,  and  ex- 
tinguished populations,  and  terrestrial  revolutions — what 
are  all  these  vicissitudes  through  which  the*  earth  has 
passed,  and  all  these  phenomena  which  to-day  are  transpir- 
ing— what  are  they  all  but  the  incidents  attending  the 
progress  of  the  active  forces  of  Nature  toward  their  des- 
tined equilibrium?  In  their  restless  and  active  lifetime 
they  show  themselves  under  myriads  of  guises,  and  work 
out  their  myriads  of  incidents ;  but  the  great  law  which  is 
over  them  hurries  them  ever  onward  in  but  one  direction, 
and  the  end  of  that  is  equilibrium,  stagnation,  death. 

Is  this,  then,  the  end  of  matter  ?  Is  it  for  this  that  space 
has  been  populated  with  worlds  innumerable  ?  Was  it  for 
this  brief  ferment  that  a  past  eternity  should  brood  over 
nothingness,  and  an  eternity  to  come  should  ache  with  the 
recollection  of  creation  foiled  ?  The  forces  of  matter  can 
do  no  more.  The  machinery  of  the  universe  has  run  down. 
Beyond  and  above  is  only  the  Eternal  Omnipotence.  There 
is  now  no  power  in  the  universe  but  Deity.  When  he  wills 
the  resurrection  of  matter  shall  dawn.  New  life  will  thrill 
through  every  vein  of  the  ancient  corse.  When  he  wills 
the  forces  of  matter  shall  hie  again  from  their  hiding-places. 


430  SKETCHES  OF  CREATION. 

Heat  will  again  be  gathered  into  central  masses.  Matter 
will  dissolve  into  liquids — liquids  burst  into  vapor,  and  fill 
again  the  vault  of  space — cohesive  affinities  will  be  sun- 
dered— chemical  unions  will  be  unlocked — electrical  and 
gravitating  forces  will  resume  their  play,  and  once  more 
will  begin  the  long  series  of  activities  which  make  up  the 
lifetime  of  firmaments,  and  systems,  and  worlds.  The  mat- 
ter of  our  solar  system — or  of  a  system  like  ours — will 
again  be  isolated ;  the  endless  whirl  of  fiery  vapor  will  de- 
tach rings,  in  succession,  which  will  consolidate  into  planets 
and  satellites — another  earth  will  spring  up — another  pe- 
riod of  the  reign  of  fire  will  ensue — and  then  another  reign 
of  water — and  then  another  long  line  of  organic  creations 
will  begin,  and,  in  due  time,  in  some  distant  future  age, 
another  intelligent  race  will  populate  another  earth,  and 
dream,  as  we  now  dream,  of  the  beginning  whence,  and  the 
goal  whither  the  grand  rush  of  events  is  carrying  them. 
This  is  one  of  the  Cycles  of  Matter. 

In  what  light,  then,  are  we  to  regard  all  the  vicissitudes 
and  activities  of  the  lifetime  of  a  universe  ?  What  are  they 
but  a  brief  agitation  on  the  surface  of  the  infinite  ocean  of 
matter — a  momentary  ripple  raised  by  the  presence  of  the 
Omnipotent  hand — destined  speedily  to  subside,  and  again 
to  be  raised  by  the  breath  of  Omnific  Power  ? 

In  the  presence  of  such  conceptions  as  these,  what  is 
man,  and  what  are  the  works  of  his  hands  ?  What  are 
fleets,  and  forts,  and  cities  with  their  insect  hum  ?  What 
are  temples^  and  pyramids,  and  Chinese  walls  ?  The  agi- 
tation of  particles  of  dust  in  a  distant  corner  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  track  of  an  insect  on  the  ocean's  shore.  The 
breath  of  an  infant  in  the  tornado's  blast. 

But  what  is  the  spirit  of  man,  whose  thoughts  thus  wan- 
der through  eternity  ?  What  is  the  intelligence  of  man 
which  climbs  the  battlements  of  the  palace  of  Omnipotence 


THE  CYCLES  OF  MATTER.  431 

— which  seizes  hold  on  infinity — which,  though  chained  in 
flesh,  spurns  its  fetters,  and  feels  evermore  that  it  is  the 
offspring  of  God — the  brother  of  angels — the  heir  of  per- 
petuity— and  will  soon  shake  its  shambles  down  amongst 
the  rubbish  of  decaying  worlds,  and  dwell  superior  to  the 
mutations  of  matter  and  the  revolutions  of  the  ages? 
What,  in  comparison  with  the  crumbling  of  mountains  and 
the  decay  of  worlds,  is  the  being  possessed  of  such  a  con- 
sciousness and  such  a  destiny  ?  Who  shall  tremble  at  the 
wreck  of  matter,  when,  in  perpetual  youth,  he  shall  outlive 
suns,  and  systems,  and  firmaments,  and  through  the  cease- 
less cycles  of  material  history  shall  see  creation  rise  upon 
creation — the  ever-recurring  mornings  of  eternal  life? 


APPENDIX. 


Note  I.,  page  50. 

The  doctrine  of  the  central  igneous  fluidity  of  the  earth  is  generally  ac- 
cepted by  geologists.  The  hypothesis  of  intense  chemical  action  as  the 
cause  of  existing  internal  heat — a  hypothesis  first  enunciated  by  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy* — is,  however,  revived  from  time  to  time  under  some  novel 
modification.  Dr.  T.  S.  Hunt,  while  admitting  the  primordial  incandes- 
cence of  our  planet,  has  maintained,  in  a  series  of  lectures  before  the  Low- 
ell Institute  of  Boston,  that  the  solid  crust  is  probably  not  less  than  2000 
miles  in  thickness,  and  envelops  a  solid  nucleus,  with  a  comparatively  thin 
belt  of  material  between  the  two,  which  has  been  reduced  to  a  soft  and 
pasty  condition  by  the  combined  action  of  heat,  water,  and  chemical  affin- 
ity. In  his  lecture  on  "Primeval  Chemistry,"  more  recently  delivered 
before  the  American  Institute  in  New  York,  he  is  reported  as  saying  that 
"the  earth  must  have  a  crust  several  hundred  miles  in  thickness;"  that 
"granite  is  in  all  cases  a  secondary  rock,  derived  from  sediments  crys- 
tallized through  the  agency  of  water  and  heat;"  and  that  "the  theory 
which  ascribes  volcanic  products  to  the  supposed  uncooled  liquid  centre 
fails  entirely  to  account  for  the  great  diversity  in  composition  of  these 
products,  all  of  which,  wherever  found,  are  represented  in  rocks  of  aque- 
ous origin." 

Mr.  N.  S.  Shaler  has  attempted  to  show,  in  an  ingenious  paper  read  be- 
fore the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  (Proceedings,  vol.  xi. ,  p.  8),  that 
the  solidification  of  the  earth  began  at  the  centre  and  proceeded  toward 
the  periphery — that  finally  solidification  began  at  the  periphery  and  pro- 
ceeded toward  the  centre,  leaving,  within  the  era  of  recognizable  geologi- 
cal events,  but  an  insignificant  portion  of  the  earth  in  its  primordial  fluid 
state. 

*  Unless,  indeed,  Milton  can  be  said  to  have  first  suggested  it  in  the  following 
words : 

"The  force 
Of  subterranean  wind  transports  a  hill 
Torn  from  Pelorus,  or  the  shattered  side 
Of  thundering  ^Etna,  whose  combustible 
And  fueled  entrails  thence  conceiving  fire, 
Sublimed  with  mineral  fury,  aid  the  winds, 
And  leave  a  singed  bottom  all  involved 
With  stench  and  smoke."— Paradise  Lost,  i.,  230. 

T 


434  APPENDIX. 

Professor  James  Hall,  also,  in  his  recent  lecture  before  the  American 
Institute  on  the  "Evolution  of  the  American  Continent," is  reported  (in 
the  New  York  Tribune)  as  advancing  views  which  indicate  that  he  has  re- 
lapsed into  the  ranks  of  the  most  radical  Neptunists.  "I  desire,"  says 
he,  "  to  impress  upon  you  this  one  truth,  that  we  have  not,  in  our  geolog- 
ical investigation,  succeeded  in  going  back  one  step  beyond  the  existence 
of  water  and  stratification — one  step  toward  this  so-called  primary  nucleus 
of  molten  matter.  So  far  as  we  have  any  knowledge  of  the  materials  in 
the  interior  of  the  globe,  they  appear  to  us  only  as  trap  dikes,  and  these 
occupying  only  a  very  small  area  upon  the  surface.  This  original  nucleus 
that  has  been  talked  about  in  geology  has  produced  no  effect  upon  the 
surface  of  the  earth ;  neither  upon  its  mountain  chains  or  any  other  of 
the  great  features  of  the  continent." 

"This  idea  of  a  great  primary  nucleus  is  only  theoretical.  It  has  not 
in  it  any  thing  tangible.  The  earliest  rocks  of  which  we  have  any  knowl- 
edge were  deposited  by  the  ocean,  under  conditions  similar  to  those  which 
now  exist.  The  Conditions  of  the  ocean  currents  are  the  same  now  as 
they  have  been  from  the  earliest  time.  From  the  earliest  history  of  the 
American  continent — from  the  earliest  history  of  any  other,  we  know  that 
the  ocean  currents  have  prevailed  as  they  now  prevail,  moving  northward 
and  southward ;  and  here,  at  least,  the  transporting  power  has  generally 
been  from  the  north  toward  the  south  and  west ;  and  we  have  abundant 
evidence  that  all  the  materials  composing  our  continent  have  been  derived 
in  that  way  from  the  transporting  agency  of  currents  of  water  alone." 

Professor  Hall  seems  to  have  taken  the  laurels  from  the  brow  of  M. 
Comte  in  his  resignation  to  the  consequences  of  the  Positive  Philosophy. 
There  are  many  positions  in  the  foregoing  quotation  which  are  destined 
to  be  shaken  as  by  an  earthquake  shock  generated  by  those  very  internal 
fires  which  he  so  irreverently  ignores.  Though  this  is  not  the  place  for 
argument,  I  will  not  refrain  from  reminding  the  reader  that  if  our  world 
has  been  cooling  for  many  ages,  as  science  demonstrates  that  it  is  cooling 
to-day,  there  must  have  been  a  time  when  the  first  aqueous  sediments  ac- 
cumulated. What  was  their  origin  ?  I  very  well  understand  that  the  re- 
ply will  be,  that  we  neither  know  that  the  earth  has  been  in  process  of  cool- 
ing from  a  high  antiquity,  nor  have  we  seen,  except  in  isolated  patches, 
the  supposed  foundation-lavas  and  granites  which  constituted  the  primor- 
dial crust.  When  I  stand  by  the  Michigan  Central  Railway,  and  see  the 
"Blue  Line"  freight-cars  pass,  bearing  the  inscription  "Great  Central 
Route ;  through  freight  from  New  York  to  the  Mississippi,"  I  should  con- 
sider it  folly  to  deny  that  these  cars  have  proceeded  from  New  York,  and 
base  my  denial  on  the  fact  that  I  had  never  seen  them  at  that  point.  It  is 
thus  that  events  rush  past  us,  and  he  who  will  read  the  legends  which  they 
bear  may  learn  somewhat  both  of  the  beginning  and  the  end.  Lack  of 
demonstration  is  not  necessarily  nescience.  It  is  too  much  the  fashion  of 
a  certain  school  to  apply  the  shears  of  nescience  to  scientific  and  philo- 


APPENDIX.  435 

sophic  systems,  to  crop  and  prune  them  to  predetermined  shapes.  Whith- 
er the  known  points  us,  let  us  follow ;  and  if  we  can  not  discern  things 
clearly,  let  us  be  content  to  see  them  "  through  a  glass  darkly. "  It  would 
be  stupidity  to  ignore  the  existence  of  a  solar  orb  even  in  total  eclipse. 

This  revulsion  in  the  popular  view  has  to  some  extent  been  produced  by 
the  weight  of  well-known  names  recorded  against  the  doctrine  of  primor- 
dial fusion  and  continued  central  fluidity.  Sir  David  Brewster  denounces 
"  the  nebulous  theory"  as  "utter  nonsense ;"  and  Mr.  Evan  Hopkins  has 
publicly  denied  the  accepted  doctrine  of  a  slow  increase  of  temperature  in 
penetrating  toward  the  earth's  centre.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  the 
facts  upon  which  his  denial  rests  have  been  generated  by  abnormal  and 
perturbating  influences.  Mr.  W.  Hopkins  several  years  since  contended 
that  the  solidification  of  the  earth  must  have  begun  at  the  centre,  simul- 
taneously with  the  formation  of  the  superficial  crust.  Sir  Wm.  Thompson 
maintains  that  the  rigidity  of  the  earth  is  required  by  the  phenomena  of 
precession  and  nutation.  Against  these  conclusions,  however,  Delauny 
very  recently  opposes  the  results  of  experiments  which  show  that  a  body 
of  water  inclosed  in  a  rotating  glass  globe  promptly  partakes  of  the  rota- 
tion of  the  globe,  and  becomes  physically  a  part  of  it.  The  author  re- 
mains decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  the  balance  of  evidence  sustains  the 
doctrine  of  central  fluidity.  The  reader  who  desires  to  examine  farther 
the  objections  urged  against  this  doctrine  may  consult  Hopkins  (Wm.), 
in  Phil.  Trans,  of  the  Royal  Society,  1836,  p.  382 ;  also  1839-40-42  ;  also 
Quar.  Jour.  Geolog.  Soc,  Lond.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  56  ;  Thompson  (W.),  on  the 
Rigidity  of  the  Earth,  in  Proceedings  Roy.  Soc,  vol.  xii.,  p.  103;  Tyn- 
dall,  in  Fortnightly  Review.  On  the  subject  of  mountain-formation,  see 
Hall  (James),  Paleontology  of  New  York,  vol.  iv.,  Introduction;  Dana 
(J.  D.),  Address  before  the  Amer.  Assoc,  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
Providence,  1857. 


Note  II.,  page  71. 
As  the  recent  discovery  of  traces  of  animal  life  two  whole  systems  low- 
er in  the  series  of  strata  than  had  heretofore  been  known  is  an  event  of 
extraordinary  importance  in  the  progress  of  our  knowledge  of  the  world's 
preadamic  history — insomuch  that  Sir  Charles  Lyell  characterizes  it  as  the 
greatest  geological  discovery  of  his  time — I  introduce  here  a  somewhat 
complete  series  of  references  to  the  papers  which  have  been  published  on 
the  subject : 

1858,  May.  Hunt  (Dr.  T.  S.),  Remarks  on  the  presence  of  iron  ores  and 
graphite  in  Laurentian  strata  as  affording  evidence  of  the  ' '  exist- 
ence of  organic  life  even  during  the  Laurentian  or  Azoic  period." 
Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts  [2],  xxv.,  436. 
1858,  Oct.  Logan  (Sir  W.  E.)  received  the  first  specimens  of  suspected 


436  APPENDIX. 

fossilferous  rock  from  the  Grand  Calumet  on  the  River  Ottawa,  col- 
lected by  Mr.  J.  McMullen.  Figured  in  "  Geol.  of  Canada,"  p.  49, 
and  in  numerous  places  since. 

1859*,  Jan.  Hunt  (Dr.  T.  S.),  Reiterates  his  convictions  as  to  the  "exist- 
ence of  an  abundant  vegetation  during  the  Laurentian  period." 
Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc,  Lond,  Reviewed  Amer.  Jour.  [2],  xxxi., 
134. 

1850,  Aug.  Logan  (Sir  W.  E.),  Exhibits  specimens  before  Amer.  Asso§. 
Adv.  Sci.  at  Springfield. 

1859.  Logan  (Sir  W.  E.),  Publishes  notice  of  the  above.  Canadian  Nat- 
uralist, i  v. ,  300. 

1861,  May.   Hunt  (Dr.  T.  S.),  Sets  forth  more  fully  his  views  on  probable 

Laurentian  life.     Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xxxi.,  396. 

1862.  Logan  (Sir  W.  E.),  Exhibits  specimens  in  Great  Britain  which  are 
held  by  Ramsay  to  be  organic. 

1862,  Dec.  Dana  (Prof.  J.  D.),  Suggests  indications  of  organic  life  in 

Azoic  rocks.     Manual  of  Geology,  p.  145. 

1 863,  Logan  (Sir  W.  E. ),  Describes  and  figures  specimens  from  Grand 
Calumet.     Geology  of  Canada,  p.  49. 

1864,  Mar.  Logan  (Sir  W.  E.),  Preliminary  notice  of  additional  specimens 

discovered  by  James  Lowe  in  Grenville.     Amer.  Jour.  [2],  xxxvii., 

272. 
1861,  May.  Hunt  (Dr.  T.  S.),  Preliminary  notice  of  some  specimens. 

Amer.  Jour.,  xxxvii.,  431. 
1861,  Nov.  Sanford  (Mr.),  Announces  Eozoon  in  Connemara  marble  of 

the  Binabola  Mountains,  Ireland.     Geological  Magazine.     Rean- 

nounced  in  "Reader,"  Feb.  25,  1865. 

1865,  Feb.  The  Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc,  Lond.,  contains  the  following  pa- 

pers : 

Logan  (Sir  W.  E.),  "On  the  occurrence  of  Organic  Remains  in 

the  Laurentian  Rr  vs  of  Canada." 
Dawson  (Dr.  J.  W. ),     On  certain  Organic  Remains  in  the  Lau- 
rentian Limestones  of  Canada."    A  microscopical  investigation 
and  determination  of  zoological  relations. 
Carpenter  (Dr.  W.  B.),  "  Notes  on  the  Structure  and  Affinities  of 

Eozoon  Canadense. "     Farther  microscopical  descriptions. 
Hunt  (Dr.  T.  S.),  "On  the  Mineralogy  of  Eozoon  Canadense." 
The  foregoing  papers  were  republished  in  the  Canadian  Naturalist  [2], 
ii.,  92,  April,  1865;  also  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  On  the  History  of  Eo- 
zoon Canadense, "  April,  1865  ;  also,  with  remarks  by  the  editors,  in  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.  and  Arts  [2],  xl.,  344,  Nov.,  1865. 
1865,  April.  Jones  (Prof.  T.  R.),  Discusses  the  geological  and  zoological 

relations  of  Eozoon.     Popular  Science  Review. 
1865,  May.  Carpenter  (Dr.  W.  B.),  Further  discusses  Eozoon.     Intellect- 
ual Observer  (two  plates). 


APPENDIX. 


437 


1865,  June  10.  King  and  Rowney  (Profs.),  Question  the  organic  nature 

of  Eozoon,  while  Dr.  Carpenter  sustains  it,  supported  by  the  au- 
thority of  Milne-Edwards. 

1866,  Feb.  10.  Carpenter  (Dr.  W.  B.),  Announces  Eozoon  from  Australia 

and  Bavaria,  and  controverts  the  position  of  Profs.  King  and  Row- 

ney.     Noticed  in  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xli.,  406. 
1866,  Aug.  King  and  Bowney  (Profs.), "  On  the  so-called  Eozoonal  rock," 
m  denying  its  organic  character.    Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc. ,  Lond. ,  xxii. , 

pt.  ii. ,  23.     Their  position  is  controverted  in  the  same  No.     Their 

"  Summary"  is  reproduced  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xliv.,  375. 

1866.  Giimbel  (Dr.),  "Occurrence  of  Eozoon  in  East  Bavarian  primitive 
rocks."  Sitzungsberichte  d.  K.  Acad.  d.  W.  in  Miinchen, i.,  1.  Ke- 
produced  Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc,  Lond.,  xxii.,  pt.  i.,  p.  185.  No- 
ticed Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xliii.,  398.  Confirmed  by  Carpenter, 
Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  No.  xciii.,  p.  508. 

1867,  May.  Dawson  and  Logan.    Describe  new  specimens  of  Eozoon  from 

Tudor,  C.  W.     Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc 

Carpenter  (Dr.  W.  B.),  Reasserts  organic  nature  of  Eozoon  in  op- 
position to  King  and  Rowney.  Proc  Royal  Soc,  No.  xciii.,  p.  503. 
Pusirevski  (Prof.),  Reports  Eozoon  Cdnadense  at  Hopinwara,  Fin- 
land. Bull.  Acad.  St.  Petersburg,  x.,  151.  Noticed  Amer.  Jour. 
Sci.  [2],  xliv.,  284. 
1867,  Nov.  Dawson  (J.  W.),  Notes  on  Eozoon  from  Tudor,  C.  W.,  from 
Long  Lake  and  Wentworth,  and  from  Madoc,  with  remarks  by  Dr. 
W.  B.  Carpenter.  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xliv. ,  367.  Republished 
Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  xlvi.,  245  (Sept.,  1868). 


1867. 


1867. 


Note  III.,  page  76. 
As  the  reader  may  frequently  desire  to  refresh  his  memory  in  reference 
to  the  order  of  superposition  of  the  great  groups  of  strata,  the  following 
table  is  appended  for  reference.      The  groups  follow  each  other  in  the 
natural  order  of  superposition. 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  STRATIFIED  EOCKS  OF  NORTH  AMERICA. 


t:      r. 

Groups. 

Localities. 

Some  leading  Types 
of  Fossils. 

O 

O 
N 

o 

p 
o 

—  ? 

H 

Terrace. 
Champlain. 

Glacial. 

The  existing  surface. 
Lake  and  river  ter- 
races. 
Deep-seated  gravel  and 

clays. 

Existing  animals. 
Cave  Bear,  Hairy  Elephant,  etc. 

Primeval  Man. 
Cave  Bear  and  associates. 

Sumter. 
Yorktown. 

Vicksburg. 
Jackson. 
Claiborne. 

S.  C. ;  Upper  Missouri. 

Va. ;  "Bad  Lands," 

Dakotah. 

Mississippi. 

Southern  Ala.  and  Miss. 

Southern  Ala. 

Extinct  mammals. 
Great  increase  of  mammals. 

Orbitoides ;  Crocodiles. 

Zeuglodon  (whale-like). 

Sharks ;  Sea-urchins  ;  Shells. 

438 


APPENDIX. 


CLASSIFICATION   OF   THE   STRATIFIED   ROCKS   OF  NORTH  AMER- 
ICA— {Continued). 


1 

Group8. 

Localities. 

Some  leading  Types 
of  Fossils. 

d 

1 

|l 

Later  Creta. 
Earlier  Creta. 

Kansas;  Nebraska. 

Montgomery,  Selma, 

etc.,  Ala. 

Ammonites  ;  Sharks  ;  Lizards. 
Angiospermous  plants. 

| 

9 

Wealden. 
Oolite. 
Lias. 

[Not  known  in  Amer- 
ica.] 

Jurassic  strata,  mostly 
west  of  Mississippi, 
extending  into  Cali- 
fornia. 

Iguanodon  and  other  Lizards? 

Pterosaurs ;  Gar-pikes ; 

Ichthyosaurs ;  Plesiosaurs. 

-  J 

Trias. 

Kansas  ?  Conn.  ? 

Saurians  and  Labyrintho- 
donts. 

d 

o 

§ 

w 

< 

1 

'3 
| 

0 

Permian. 

Coal  Measures. 
Conglomerate. 

False  Coal  Meas. 
Mountain  Lime- 
stone. 
Marshall. 

Kansas ;  N.  C. 

Mid.  and  West.  States. 
Every  where  beneath 

Coal  Measures. 
Ky. ;  Tenn. ;  W.Va. ;  0. 
West.  States ;  St.  Louis. 

Cleveland ;  Burlington, 
Iowa ;  Michigan. 

Coal  plants  and  marine  ani- 
mals. 
Land  plants  ;  marine  animals. 
Stems  of  drift-wood. 

Land  plants.     * 
Crinoids  ;  Corals  ;  Chambered 

Shells. 

Chambered  Shells ;  Brachio- 

pods ;  Fishes. 

d 

'3 
p 

Chemung. 
Hamilton. 

Corniferous. 

Oriskany. 

Southern  New  York. 
Buffalo,  N.Y.;  Iowa 

City. 
Columbus,  0. ;  Mon- 
roe, Mich. 
Cumberland,  Md. ;  Pa. ; 
N.Y. 

Brachiopods. 

Brachiopods;  Tribolites; 

Fishes. 

Corals  ;  Brachiopods  ;  First 

Fishes. 

Brachiopods. 

a 

2 

Lower  Helder- 
berg. 
Salina. 

Niagara. 

Cincinnati. 

Trenton. 

Chazy. 

Levis. 

Calciferous. 

Potsdam. 

St.  John's. 

Helderbei'g  Mts.,  N.Y. ; 
Me. ;  Mo. ;  0. ;  Mich. 
Syracuse,  N.Y;  Gait,  C. 
W. ;  Mackinac,  Mich. 
Niag.  Falls ;   Chicago ; 

Drummond's  Isl. 
Cincinnati,  0.  ;    Nash- 
ville, Tenn. 
N.  Y. ;  Can. ;  Mich. ; 

Tenn. 
E.  side  Kewenaw  Pt. ; 

Can.;  N.Y. 
Quebec,  Can. ;  Phillips- 
burg,  N.  Y. 
W.  side  Kewenaw  Pt. ; 

N.  Y.  ;  Canada. 
Potsdam,  N.Y. ;  St.  Pe- 
ter's R.,  Minn. 
St.  John's,  N.  F. ;  Geor- 
gia, Vt. 

Crinoids ;  Brachiopods. 

Crustaceans. 

Corals  (Chain  Coral,  etc.). 

Brachiopods;  Corals  (many 

small). 

Orthoceratites ;  Gasteropods ; 

Crinoids. 

Orthoceratites;  Trilobites. 

Trilobites ;  Graptolites. 

Trilobites  ;  Gasteropods  ;  Cor- 
als. 
Trilobites ;  Brachiopods ; 
Sponges. 
Trilobites  ;   Orthis  ;  Lingula ; 
Cystids. 

d 

a 
j 

'5 
2 
3 

[Not  yet  subdi- 
vided.] 

N.  shore  of  L.  Huron ; 
Iron  region  of  L.  Supe- 
rior ; 
Some  of  the  E.  swells  of 
the  Appalachian  chain. 

Perhaps  the  Cambrian  fossils 
of  Europe  are  of  this  age. 

■M 

Labrador. 

Lower  Lau-    1 
rentian.         L 

Adirondack  Mts. ; 
N.  shore  L.  Superior ; 
vast  region  north  of  St. 
Lawrence  R.,  Canada. 

Only  fossil  known  is  EozOon. 
The    American     species    is 
Eozoon  Canadense.    Plants 
probably  existed. 

APPENDIX.  439 

Note  IV.,  page  132. 

The  term  Catskill  gr^up  is  employed  in  this  connection  in  a  sense  great- 
ly restricted  from  that  in  which  the  New  York  geologists  originally  em- 
ployed it,  since  it  has  been  shown  that  the  principal  portion  of  the  so-call- 
ed Catskill  strata  of  the  Catskill  Mountains  is  really  a  prolongation  of  the 
Chemung  rocks  of  the  southern  interior  of  the  state ;  and  for  this  reason, 
the  original  sense  of  the  term  is  no  longer  admissible.  The  term  thus 
stands  as  the  designation  of  a  series  of  strata  which  does  not  form  a  nat- 
urally restricted  assemblage,  and  must  drop  out  of  use. 

In  parallelizing  the  "  Catskill"  (fhus  restricted)  and  the  "Marshall"  with 
the  lower  part  of  the  Mountain  Limestone  of  Europe,  and  at  the  same  time 
suggesting  their  synchronism  with  the  "Old  Red  Sandstone,"  I  employ  the 
latter  term  in  its  restricted  and  original  sense,  not  as  comprehending  the 
whole  recognized  Devonian  of  the  Old  World.  It  is  farther  not  unlikely 
that  the  parallelism  ought  to  be  restricted  to  the  "Yellow,"  "White," 
and  "  Red"  sandstones  and  conglomerates  (Marwood  and  Petherwin  beds) 
of  the  Old  Red  series,  which,  according  to  admissions  made  from  time  to 
time  by  Murchison  and  others,  exhibit  almost  decisive  affinities  with  the 
Carboniferous  age.     See  Quar.  Jour.  Geol.  Soc,  London,  vol.  ix.,  p.  23. 


Note  V.,  page  139. 

Allusion  is  here  made  to  one  of  the  mines  at  Lasalle,  Illinois.  This  by 
no  means  exemplifies  the  greatest  depth  to  which  mining  operations  have 
been  carried.  The  mine  at  Duckenfeld,  in  Cheshire,  England,  is  probably 
the  deepest  coal  mine  in  the  world.  A  simple  shaft  was  sunk  2004  feet 
to  the  bed  of  coal,  and  by  means  of  an  engine  plane  in  the  coal-bed,  a  far- 
ther depth  of  500  feet  has  been  attained,  making  2504  feet  to  the  bottom 
of  the  excavation.  At  Pendleton,  near  Manchester,  coal  is  worked  daily 
from  a  depth  of  2135  feet ;  and  the  Cannel  coal  of  Wigan  is  brought  from 
1 773  feet  below  the  surface.  Many  of  the  Durham  collieries  are  equally 
deep,  and  far  more  extensive  in  their  subterranean  labyrinths. 

The  engine  shaft  of  the  Great  Consolidated  copper  mines  in  Cornwall 
reaches  the  depth  of  1650  feet,  and  the  length  of  the  various  shafts,  adits, 
and  galleries  exceeds  63  miles.  Dalcoath  tin  mine,  in  Cornwall,  is  now 
working  at  more  than  1800  feet  from  the  surface.  The  famous  silver 
mine  of  Valenciana,  Mexico,  is  1860  feet  deep.  The  Hohenbirger  mines 
in  the  Saxon  Erzegebirge,  near  Freiburg,  are  1827  feet  deep,  and  the 
Thurmhofer  1 944  feet  deep.  The  depth  of  the  celebrated  mine  of  Joa- 
chimsthal,  in  Bohemia,  is  21 20  feet.  The  Tresavean  copper  mine  in  Corn- 
wall is  2180  feet.  The  workings  of  the  Samson  mine  at  Andreasberg,  in 
the  Harz,  have  been  prosecuted  to  the  depth  of  2197  feet.  At  Rorerbuhel,  in 
Bohemia,  there  were  in  the  ,16th  century  excavations  to  the  depth  of  3107 


440  APPENDIX. 

feet,  made  before  the  invention  of  gunpowder.  The  greatest  depth  to  which 
human  labor  and  ingenuity  have  as  yet  been  able  to  penetrate  is  3778  feet, 
in  the  old  Kuttenberger  mine  in  Bohemia,  now  abandoned.  This  depth, 
as  remarked  by  Humboldt,  is  about  eight  times  the  height  of  the  pyramid 
of  Cheops  or  the  Cathedral  of  Strasburg. 

The  deepest  excavation  in  the  United  States  is  probably  that  of  the 
Minnesota  mine  near  Ontonagon,  Lake  Superior,  which  descends  upon  a 
copper-bearing  lode  to  the  depth  of  over  1300  feet.  The  Quincy  mine  at 
Hancock  is  000  feet  deep.  The  deepest  mine  in  California  is  said  to  be 
the  Hay  ward  Quartz  mine  in  Amador  county,  1200  feet  deep.  The  deep- 
est excavations  on  the  Comstock  lode,  Nevada,  are  700  feet. 

Mining  excavations  frequently  extend  from  half  a  mile  to  a  mile  under 
the  sea.  In  these  gloomy  subterranean  and  submarine  passages,  where, 
in  some  cases,  one  or  two  hundred  feet  of  sea- water  rest  upon  a  slaty  roof 
but  three  or  four  feet  thick,  the  low  moan  of  the  waves  can  be  continually 
heard  above  the  miner's  head,  and  in  time  of  storms  the  howl  becomes  ter- 
rific and  intolerable.  The  great  adit  for  the  discharge  of  the  waters  of 
the  Gwennap  tin  mines  in  Cornwall  exceeds  30  miles.  In  1 864,  a  tun- 
nel 1 4  miles  in  length  was  completed  in  the  region  of  the  Harz  mines, 
Brunswick,  for  the  drainage  of  the  district.  A  similar  tunnel,  15  miles  in 
length,  designed  for  the  drainage  of  the  Freiberg  district,  has  been  in  prog- 
ress for  several  years.  The  Sutro  tunnel,  designed  for  the  drainage  of 
the  mines  located  upon  the  Comstock  lode,  Nevada,  is  to  be  19,000  feet  in 
length,  12  feet  wide,  and  10  feet  high,  and  will  cost  between  four  and  five 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  great ' '  tunnel"  at  Chicago,  through  which  the  city  is  supplied  with 
pure  water  from  Lake  Michigan,  is  10,567  feet  long,  five  feet  wide,  and 
five  feet  two  inches  high,  and  at  the  shore  extremity  communicates  with 
a  vertical  shaft  82  feet  below  the  lake-level,  and  at  the  other  extremity 
with  a  crib  and  shaft  66  feet  below  the  lake-level. 


Note  VI.,  page  185. 
As  the  Archceopteryx,  or  bird-reptile,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  rel- 
ics of  the  ancient  world,  and  has  but  recently  been  brought  to  light,  I  ap- 
pend some  references  to  sources  of  information  upon  the  subject :  Prof. 
Wagner  first  announced  the  discovery  to  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences 
of  Munich  in  1861;  H.  Herrman  von  Meyer  described  it  in  "  Jahrbuch 
fur  Mineralogie,"  1861,  p.  561 ;  Wm.  H.  Woodward,  in  "  Intellectual  Ob- 
server, "  Dec.  1 862  (with  plate) ;  Prof.  J.  D.  Dana,  in  ' '  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sci- 
ence and  Arts,"  2d  ser.,  xxxv.,  May,  1863,  p.  129,  and  "  Manual  of  Geolo- 
gy," Appendix  to  later  editions  j  Prof.  R.  Owen,  in  "  Philosophical  Tran- 
sactions," cliii.,  part  i.,  1863,  p.  33,  pi.  1  to  4. 


APPENDIX. 


441 


Note  VII.,  p.  228. 

I  have  given  in  the  text  the  usual  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  glacial  epoch.  The  theory  of  northern  elevation,  however,  as  the  sole 
or  principal  cause  of  continental  glaciers,  has  never  been  regarded,  by 
many  geologists,  as  completely  satisfactory.  Within  a  few  years  renewed 
attempts  have  been  made  to  connect  these  phenomena  with  astronomical 
changes  of  a  secular  character. 

At  sundry  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  world,  agencies  seem  to  have 
arisen  which  brought  into  existence  and  transported  over  considerable  dis- 
tances vast  quantities  of  rounded  pebbles  and  finer  detrital  materials.  In 
some  cases — as  in  the  Niagara,  Permian,  and  Upper  Miocene  periods — 
smoothed  and  striated  rock-surfaces  have  been  discovered,  similar  to  those 
which  are  generally  attributed  to  glacier  action.  In  the  intervening  pe- 
riods evidences  of  tropical  temperature  present  themselves.  The  sugges- 
tion has  therefore  been  made  that  more  than  once  in  the  history  of  the 
world — perhaps  at  somewhat  regular  intervals  widely  removed — the  north- 
ern portions  of  the  continents  have  been  visited  by  a  reign  of  frost. 

To  account  for  these  apparently  secular  phenomena,  new  investigations 
have  been  made  upon  the  effects  of  the  secular  variations  in  the  longitude 
of  the  equinox,  the  eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit,  and  the  obliquity  of 
the  ecliptic.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  an  exposition  of  the 
discussions  which  have  arisen.  I  may,  however,  simply  explain  the  na- 
ture of  the  relation  which  subsists  between  terrestrial  climates  and  the 
cosmical  changes  alluded  to. 

1.  As  to  the  variation  in  the  eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  when  the  northern  hemisphere  has  its  winter  in  perihelion  dur- 
ing the  time  of  greatest  eccentricity,  the  amount  of  glaciation  must  be 
considerably  less  than  when  the  same  hemisphere  has  its  winter  in  aphe- 
lion during  the  time  of  greatest  eccentricity. 

2.  As  to  the  variation  in  the  obliquity  of  the  earth's  axis,  it  appears 
that  when  the  obliquity  is  greatest,  the  winter  temperature  of  the  polar 
regions  can  not  be  much  severer  than  when  the  obliquity  is  least — since 
when  the  sun  is  below  the  horizon  it  is  immaterial  whether  it  be  two  der 
grees  or  ten  below — while  the  summer  temperature  of  the  polar  regions 
will  be  increased  by  the  whole  increase  in  the  verticality  of  the  sun's  rays. 
The  effect,  therefore,  of  an  increase  in  the  obliquity  of  the  earth's  axis 
will  be  to  diminish  the  average  glaciation  of  the  polar  regions. 

3.  Suppose  now  the  minimum  glaciation  of  the  polar  regions,  so  far  as 
due  to  obliquity,  to  occur  at  the  time  when  the  northern  hemisphere  ex- 
periences minimum  rigors  of  climate  through  the  effect  of  increased  ec- 
centricity ;  the  conjunction  of  these  two  minima  of  cold  in  the  north  polar 
regions  would,  it  is  thought,  remove  the  ice  cap,  and  effect  conditions  of 
climate  such  as  prevailed  when  Greenland,  in  the  Miocene  period,  support- 
ed trees  of  tropical  nature  and  luxuriance. 

T2 


442  APPENDIX. 

4.  These  conditions  all  reversed  would  produce  a  maximum  of  glacia- 
tion  in  the  north  temperate  and  polar  regions  such  as  evidently  existed 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Post  Tertiary  period. 

It  is  probably  within  the  power  of  physical  astronomy  to  calculate  the 
epochs  at  which  these  maxima  and  minima  have  occurred.  It  is,  how- 
ever, a  problem  of  considerable  difficulty,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  rate  of 
precession  of  the  equinoxes,  the  proper  motion  of  the  apsides,  and  the  sec- 
ular change  in  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic,  none  of  which  data  are  per- 
fectly constant.  According  to  recent  determinations,  the  equinox  com- 
pletes a  revolution  in  25,868  years.  The  apsides  move  forward  to  meet 
the  equinox,  so  that  perihelion  has  the  same  longitude  once  in  21,066 
years.  The  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  returns  to  the  same  value  in  about 
100,000  years. 

M.  Adhemar  has  based  an  explanation  of  the  occurrence  of  glacial  pe- 
riods upon  the  climatic  effects  of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  alone. 
As  the  earth's  axis  is  inclined  to  the  ecliptic,  the  hemisphere  which  has 
its  winter  in  aphelion  is  not  only  farther  from  the  sun  than  the  other  hem- 
isphere during  its  winter,  but  also  experiences  a  winter  having  about  eight 
days  longer  duration.  The  excess  in  the  duration  of  its  winter  is  partly 
caused  by  the  slower  motion  of  the  earth  on  that  side  of  the  equinoxes 
which  embraces  the  upper  apsis,  and  partly  also  by  the  greater  length  of 
the  path  on  that  side.  This  hemisphere  is  therefore  subjected  to  an  ex- 
cess of  cold.  For  reverse  reasons,  the  other  hemisphere  enjoys  more  than 
the  mean  warmth. 

In  consequence,  however,  of  the  gyration  of  the  axis  in  a  period  which 
Adhe'mar  takes  at  21,000  years,  it  follows  that  at  the  end  of  10,500  years 
the  hemisphere  which  had  been  turned  away  from  the  sun  at  aphelion  be- 
comes turned  toward  him.  In  other  words,  the  climatic  inequalities  of 
the  two  hemispheres  become  reversed.  That  hemisphere  which  for  10,500 
years  had  been  subjected  to  excessive  glaciation,  now  enjoys  excessive 
warmth,  and  that  which  had  enjoyed  excessive  warmth  is  visited  by  ex- 
cessive cold.  There  are,  therefore,  two  great  seasons  for  each  hemisphere 
during  the  progress  of  the  Annus  Magnus,  or  Great  Year.  The  summer 
has  a  duration  of  10,500  years,  and  the  winter  an  equal  duration. 

One  thing  farther  should  be  remarked  in  connection  with  the  accumu- 
lation of  masses  of  ice  and  snow  about  either  pole,  from  whatever  cause 
the  accumulation  proceeds.  Such  an  accumulation  must  necessarily 
change  the  position  of  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  earth-mass.  That 
centre  must  move  toward  the  pole  thus  burdened.  The  fluent  waters 
upon  the  earth's  surface,  free  to  adjust  themselves  in  equilibrium  about 
the  centre  of  gravity,  must  change  their  distribution  as  the  place  of  the 
centre  of  gravity  changes.  During  the  glaciation  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, the  waters  will  accumulate  about  the  south  pole;  and  during  the 
glaciation  of  the  northern  hemisphere,  they  must  accumulate  about  the 
north  pole.     These  alternating  accumulations  of  the  waters  are  adequate, 


APPENDIX.  443 

it  has  been  calculated,  to  account  for  the  last  submergence  of  the  northern 
hemisphere  during  the  Champlain  Epoch.  The  submergence  of  the  south- 
ern polar  lands  is  now  in  progress. 

Should  the  connection  of  "  the  glacial  period" — and  of  other  glacial  pe- 
riods more  ancient — with  cosmical  conditions,  be  satisfactorily  established, 
it  seems  to  me  that  we  are  here  furnished  with  a  hopeful  means  of  giving 
greater  precision  to  the  calculus  of  geological  time. 

For  detailed  information  on  these  questions,  see  Croll,  Philosophical 
Magazine  for  August,  1 864,  and  February,  1867;  Transactions  Geol.  Soc, 
Glasgow,  April,  1867 ;  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  1847,  etc. 


Note  VIII. ,  page  287. 
As  the  records  of  the  flowing  wells  of  Oil  Springs  constitute  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  chapters  of  the  history  of  Petroleum,  I  append  here  a 
list  of  them,  made  from  personal  examination  and  research.  In  this  list, 
*f  Sub."  stands  for  subdivision,  "  R."  for  range,  "  L."  for  lot,  and  "Con." 
for  concession. 

Former  Flowing  Wells  at  Oil  Springs,  township  of  Fnniskillen,  Ontario. 

Depth  in  feet.  Yield  in  bbls. 

3  Finn  &  Brown— S.  E.  part  L.  17,  Con.  1 Trifling. 

104  Solis— Sub.  16,  R.A.,  L.  18,  Con.  2 600 

108  Purdy— W.  £  L.  19,  Con.  2 1000 

115  Evoy  Brothers— W.  |  L.  19,  Con.  2 600 

116  Jewry  &  Evoy— W.  £  L.  19,  Con.  2 300 

116  Fairbanks— Sub.  31,  R.  5,  L.  17,  Con.  2 500 

130  Campbell— W.  £  L.  19,  Con.  2 200 

132  Bennett  Brothers 500 

136  Chandler— Sub.  33,  R.  2,  L.  18,  Con.  2 100 

155  Jewry  &  Evoy — Sa/ne  as  above,  bored  deeper 2000 

157  Sifton,  Gordon,  &  Bennett— Sub.  2,  L.  18,  Con.  2 150 

158  J.  W.  Sifton— Sub.  1,  E  part  L.  18,  Con.  2... 800 

158  Shaw— Sub.  10,  R.B.,L.  18,  Con.  2 3000 

160  Wanless— Sub.  6,  R.E.,L.  18,  Con.  2 200 

160  McLane— Sub.  2,  E.  part  L.  18,  Con.  2 3000 

160  Ball— Sub.  3,  E.  part  L.  18,  Con.  2 250 

160  Rumsey— Sub.  6,  E.  part  L.  18,  Con.  2 250 

160  Whipple— Sub.  8,  R.  A.,  L.  18,  Con.  2 400 

163  Sanborn  &  Shannon— Sub.  13,  R.C.,  L.  18,  Con.  2 2000 

163  Campbell  &  Forsyth— Sub.  12,  R.  C,  L.  18,  Con.  2 1000 

163  Wilkes— Sub.  9,  R.  A.,  L.  18,  Con.  2 2000 

164  Bradley— Sub.  13,  R.  I.,  L.  18,  Con.  2 3000 

167  Webster  &  Shepley— E.  part  L.  18,  Con.  2 6000 

170  Leavenworth— Sub.  7,  R.C.,L.  18,  Con.  2 500 


444  APPENDIX. 

Depth  In  feet.  Yield  in  bbla. 

170  Culver— Sub.  7,  R.  C,  L.  18,  Con.  2 200 

173  Allen— Sub.  32,  R.  5,  L.  17,  Con.  2 2000 

175' Barnes— Sub.  36,  R.  5,  L.  17,  Con.  2 300 

178  Petit— W.  |  L.  19,  Con.  2 3000 

180  GeorgeGray— Sub.  32,R.I.,L.  17,  Con.  2 150 

180  Holmes— Sub.  9,  E.  £  L.  19,  Con.  2 500 

187  McColl— Sub.  37,  R.  5,  L.  17,  Con.  2 1200 

188  Swan— E.  part  L.  18,  Gon.  2 6000 

196  Nelson— Sub.  29,  R.  2,  L.  17,  Con.  2. 

212  Fiero— Sub.  1,  R.  4,  L.  19,  Con.  1 6000 

237  Black  &  Mathewson— Sub.  12,  L.  17,  Con.  1 7500 


Note  IX.,  page  396. 
The  thoughts  embodied  in  this  and  the  five  following  chapters  were  first 
shadowed  forth  by  the  author  in  the  Michigan  Journal  of  Education  in 
1860.  They  were  more  fully  elaborated  in  the  Ladies'  Repository  for  No- 
vember and  December,  1863,  and  January,  1864.  Many  thoughts  and 
conceptions  which  were  then  original  appear  to  be  now  but  the  echoes  of 
Mayer,  Helmholtz,  and  others.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  reference 
to  the  doctrine  of  solar  refrigeration.  That  doctrine,  then  entirely  new 
to  the  writer,  was  put  forth  with  much  apprehension.  The  publication  of 
Mayer's  papers  in  Silliman's  Journal  (vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  261 ;  xxxvii.,  p.  187 ; 
xxxviii.,  p.  239,  397)  in  1863  and  1864  afforded  the  writer  the  first  exact 
basis  for  conclusions  which  he  had  already  reached.  The  later  researches 
of  others  have  served  to  give  a  scientific  sanction  to  statements  which  at 
one  time  might  have  been  regarded  as  little  more  than  vagaries  of  the  im- 
agination. 


Note  X. ,  page  404. 

Such,  at  least,  is  the  generalization  put  forth  by  Mtincke,  Mrs.  Somer- 
ville,  and  other  physicists.  It  is  apparently  founded  on  reports  of  obser- 
vations made  by  Scoresby  and  Parry  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  by  James 
Ross  in  the  Antarctic.  M.  Charles  Martins,  however,  a  highly  competent 
authority,  denies  that  any  such  increase  of  temperature  in  the  deeper  arc- 
tic waters  exists.  Nothing  of  the  kind  was  observed  by  le  Contre-Amiral 
Coupvent  des  Bois  in  the  voyage  of  the  corvettes  Astrolabe  and  Zelee ; 
nor  in  the  soundings  made  on  the  two  voyages  to  Spitzbergen  with  the 
corvette  Recherche. 

On  this  subject,  see  Gehler's  Physikalisches  Worterbuch,  t.  vi.,  p.  1685; 
Somerville's  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  Am.  ed.,  p.  245  ;  May- 


APPENDIX.  445 

er,  Celestial  Dynamics,  in  Correlation  and  Conservation  of  Forces,  p. 
311  ;  Voyage  en  Scandinavie  et  au  Spitzberg  de  la  corvette  la  Recherche, 
Geographie  Physique,  t.  ii.,  p.  279  ;  Annates  de  Chimie  et  de  Physique,  3e 
Se'rie,  t.  xxiv.,  p.  220,  1848  ;  Comptes  Rendus,  t.  lxi.,  p.  836. 


Note  XL,  page  368. 
The  condensed  statement  in  the  text  conveys  a  wrong  impression. 
'There  are  two  cones  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiniere — a  lower,  or  newer,  and 
an  upper,  or  older  one.  Morlot  calculated  the  lower  to  be  from  7490  to 
11,000  years  old,  and  the  age  of  both  he  estimated  at  96,000  to  143,000 
years.  Andrews  calculates  the  age  of  the  lower  to  be  from  4265  to  4876 
years.  He  makes  the  antiquity  of  the  upper  greatly  less  than  Morlot, 
though  he  does  not  find  the  data  for  a  numerical  statement.  Human  re- 
mains are  only  known  in  the  lower  cone ;  the  age  of  the  upper  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  measure  the  duration  of  post-tertiary  time,  though  not 
unlikely  it  reaches  back  into  tertiary  time.  On  this  subject  the  reader 
may  readily  refer  to  Smithsonian  Report,  1860,  p.  340 ;  lb.,  1862,  p.  310 ; 
Amer.  Jour.  Sci.  [2],  vol.  xlv.,  p.  187. 


INDEX. 


Abbeville,  human  remains  at,  356. 
Aborigines  of  America,  362. 
Abstraction,  power  of,  the  gift  of  man, 

376. 
Acalephs,  316. 

Acceleration  of  earth's  rotation,  403,405. 
Accumulation  of  brine,  29S,  299. 

"  of  petroleum,  282,  287,  291. 

Acipenser,  166. 
Actinice,  326. 

Additions  to  the  continent  probable,  230. 
Adhemar  on  glacial  theory,  442. 
Adirondacs,  rocks  of,  78. 
Adits  in  mines,  440. 
Advent  of  man  in  Europe,  354. 
^Epiornis,  368. 
Agassiz,  L.,  on  glacier  phenomena,  221. 

"  on  coral  animals,  326. 

"  on  the  Florida  Reef,  327. 

Age  of  Reptiles,  173. 

"    of  Mammals,  199. 
Ages,  periods,  and  epochs,  133. 
Ages  of  prehistoric  man,  353,  354. 
Agents  in  terrestrial  transformations,  35. 
Aggregations  of  cosmical  matter,  427. 
Agriculture  in  primeval  times,  364. 
Air-breathers,  conditions  of  existence  of, 

151. 
Air-breathers,  earliest,  166. 
Aleutian  Islands,  25. 
Alleghany  Mountains  in  embryo,  94. 

11  "  upheaved,  162, 310. 

"  "  denuded,  399. 

Amazon  River,  235. 
America  populated  from  Asia,  362. 
American  Continent,  see  Continent. 

Desert,  345. 
Amiens  gravel,  367. 
Amceba  princeps,  70. 
Ammonites,  characters  of,  119. 

"  Mesozoic,  176. 

Ammonites  canaliculatus,  119. 
Amphibians,  317. 
Amphiccelian  vertebra?,  188. 
Amphitheatre  at  Pictured  Rocks,  87. 
Analogies  sometimes  unsafe,  325. 
Andreasberg  mines,  439. 
Andrews,  E.,  on  antiquity  of  man,  367, 

368. 
Andrias  Scheuchzeri,  193. 
Animals  in  isolated  lakes,  237. 
Annus  Magnus,  382,  383,  442. 
Antagonism  of  Nature's  energies,  397. 


Antarctic  Continent,  221. 
Anticipations  of  man  in  Nature,  331. 
Antiquity  only  relative,  414. 

"        of  man,  367. 
Appalachians  upheaved,  162, 310. 
"  denudation  of,  340. 

Aquatic  habits  and  relative  rank,  323. 
Arabians  on  secular  catastrophes,  386. 
Aral  Sea,  why  salt,  295. 
iraucaria  imbricata,  321. 
Archceopteryx,  184, 318. 

"  references  on,  440. 

Arched  Rock,  Mackinac  Island,  248. 
Archegosaurus,  158. 
Architecture,  mimic,  207. 
Arctic  regions  uplifted,  213, 311. 
Argonauta  Argo,  110. 
Aristotle  on  eternity  of  existing  order- 

386. 
Art  in  prehistoric  times,  359,  365. 
Artesian  wells,  94. 

"  "of  Toledo,  242. 

Arthrophycus  Harlani,  124. 
Articulated  animals,  101. 

"  "        order  of,  316. 

Asaphus  caudatus,  81. 

"       gigas,  108. 
Ashley  River,  human  relics  at,  356. 
Assorting  action  of  water,  229,  232. 
Asteroids  and  world  harmonies,  330. 
Asterolepis,  99. 
Astrseans,  327.     • 
Astronomy  and  its  wonders,  421. 
Athens  marble,  125. 

Attitudes  of  man  and  other  animals,  378. 
Auk,  the  Great,  368. 
Aurochs,  360. 

Austen  on  human  remains,  355. 
Australian  quadrupeds,  323. 
Aymard  on  primeval  man,  356. 
Azoic  scenes,  65. 
Aztecs  on  cycles,  887. 

Baculites,  characters  of,  119. 
Baculites  ovatus,  117. 
Bad  Lands  of  Dakotah,  205,  206,  296. 
Barrande  on  Trilobites,  80. 
Basaltic  rocks  of  Fingal's  Cave,  34. 
Basin  of  Middle  Tennessee,  341,  342. 
Basins  of  lakes  excavated,  220,  224. 
Bathygnathus  borealis,  178, 184, 188. 
Batrachians,  167. 
Beaches,  ancient,  230. 


448 


INDEX. 


Beautiful,  idea  of  the,  corre fated  to  Na- 
ture, 374. 

Beginning  of  terrestrial  order,  397. 

Bearing's  Straits  crossed  by  man,  362. 
n  "      once  an  isthmus,  369. 

Beliefs,  popular,  in  general  catastrophes, 
380. 

Beneficence  in  glacier  action,  227,  336. 

Beneficence    in    continental    submerg- 
ences, 232. 

Beneficence  in  arrangement  of  springs, 
233,  234,  335. 

Beneficence    in   terrestrial  disruptions, 
333. 

Beneficence  in  disclosure  of  mineral  val- 
ues, 333. 

Beneficence  in  Nature  correlated  to  man, 
374. 

Beneficence  and  wisdom  m  coal-making, 
160. 

Big  Caflon  of  the  Colorado,  346. 

Bigsby,  Dr.,  on  Huronian,  67. 

Bill-fish,  166,  320.     ■ 

Billings,  E.,  on  St.  John's  Group,  75. 
"  "  Lower  Helderberg,  126. 

Bipedal  footprints,  182. 
"       reptiles,  182, 191. 

Bird-tracks  of  Connecticut,  182. 

"  "  not  ornithic,  185. 

Birds  later  than  the  tracks,  182. 

Bison  in  Europe,  360. 

Bitterns  in  salt-making,  302. 

Black  Hills  of  Dakotah,  78. 

Black  shales,  165. 

Blowing  oil  wells,  284,  285. 

Blue-grass  region,  geology  of,  82,  344. 

Bogs  of  Denmark,  253. 

Bon  Air,  Tenn.,  situation  of,  343. 

Bones,  fossil,  of  Bad  Lands,  207. 

Bothwell  oil  region,  288,  289. 

Boucher  de  Perthes  on  primeval  man, 356. 

Boulder  at  University  of  Michigan,  220. 
"        "  Bradford,  Mass.,  220. 

Boulders  as  rock  specimens,  63. 
"        origin  of,  220. 
11        utility  of,  265. 

Boussingault  on  vegetable  accumulation, 
155. 

Brachiopods,  81. 

Brachyural  crustaceans,  326. 

Bradford  boulder,  220. 

Brasseur  on  Aztec  cosmogony,  387. 

Brazil,  glacier  phenomena  of,  221. 

Brewster,  Sir  David,  on  nebular  hypothe- 
sis, 435. 

Brahma,  383. 

Brahmins  on  ether,  41S. 

Brine  of  the  ocean,  its  origin,  60. 

Brines,  see  Salt. 

British  Museum,  186. 

Brorsen's  comet,  418. 

Bronze  Age,  353. 

Brown  stone  of  Connecticut  Valley,  180. 

Buckland,  Dr.,  182,  321. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  geology  of,  126, 165. 

Bulletins  of  creation,  319. 

Burial  customs  of  primeval  man,  366. 

Buried  vegetable  germs,  250. 


Burkesville  oil  region,  289. 
Burlington,  Iowa,  geology  of,  129. 
Burning  of  the  prairies,  266,  271. 

Cabot's  Head,  124. 

Caesar  on  cave-dwellers,  363. 

Cage  in  mining,  139. 

Cahawba,  Alabama,  reptiles  of,  190. 

Calamary,  116. 

Calamites,  136. 

Calcareo-fragmental  rocks,  136. 

Calcareous  rocks,  5S,  133. 

Calciferous  sandstone",  82. 

California,  no  glacial  drift  in,  335. 

Calymene  senaria,  80. 

Cambrian  rocks,  67. 

Camel  formerly  in  America,  210. 

Cane  and  prairies,  266. 

Cannel  coal  a  source  of  petroleum,  281, 

288. 
Canons  of  the  Colorado  River,  345. 
Carbonic  acid  in  the  atmosphere,  151, 166. 
"  "    the  food  of  plants,  154, 166. 

Carboniferous  reptiles,  169. 
Carpenter,  Dr.W.B.,  on  Eozoon,  69. 

"  "         "     mummied  wheat, 

261. 
Carpenter,  Dr.W.  B.,  on  vitality  of  seeds, 

261. 
Cartesian  "  vortices,"  418. 
Caspian  Sea,  why  salt,  295. 
Cassander  on  the  great  year,  383. 
Catastrophes,  beliefs  in,  380,  390. 
Catskill  Mountains  and  rocks,  129,  399. 

"       group,  131, 439. 
Caudal  elongation,  324. 
Causation  iu  endless  series,  395. 
Cave-Bear,  354. 
Cave-Bear  Epoch,  353. 
Cave-Hyena,  354. 
Cave-Lion,  354. 

Caves  with  human  remains,  352. 
Cedar  in  New  Jersey  swamps,  257. 

"      on  shores  of  great  lakes,  259. 
Celts  on  secular  revolutions,  386. 
Cemeteries  of  extinct  animals,  205,  206, 

340. 
Cenozoic  Time,  201. 

"        animals,  202. 
Centemodon,  176. 
Centre  of  earth  still  molten,  50. 
Central  heat,  doctrine  of,  433. 

"  "     references  on,  435. 

Cephalaspis,  99. 
Cephalopods,  110,  316. 
Cereals  introduced  from  the  East,  362. 
Chaldeans  on  the  order  of  Nature,  382. 
Chambered  shells,  114. 
Chambers  in  mining,  143. 
Champlain  Lake,  geology  of,  225,  230. 

"  epoch,  239. 

Chance  precluded,  334. 
Changes  in  the  human  period,  369. 
Chapel," Pictured  Rocks,"  91. 
Chapel  Falls,  92. 
Chatham,  Ontario,  241. 
Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  343. 
Chemical  geology,  5S. 


INDEX. 


449 


Chemical  reactions  on  primeval  earth,  59. 
Chemung  rocks,  position  of,  128. 

"  "      as  an  oil-reservoir,  293. 

Chicago,  geology  of,  125,  264. 
"        artesian  wells,  280. 
"       oil-stained  church,  280. 
"        tunnel,  440. 
Chili,  changes  on  the  coast  of,  23. 
Chimney  Rock,  Mackinac  Island,  248. 
Christian  fathers  on  catastrophes,  382. 
Christianity  bound  to  appropriate  sci- 
ence, 47. 
Christol  on  primeval  man,  355. 
Christy  on  primeval  man,  358. 
Cicero  on  secular  destructions,  386. 
Cimoliosaurus,  190. 
Cincinnati,  geology  of,  82, 162,  340. 
"         paved  with  boulders,  221. 
"  group  as  a  source  of  oil,  289. 

Cisterns,  subterranean,  232,  233. 
Class  modifications,  103. 
Class-groups,  succession  of,  316. 
Classification  of  strata,  43T. 
Clay's  monument,  125. 
Clepsysaurus  Pennsylvanicus,  178. 
Cleveland,  geology  of,  129, 165. 
Cliff  limestone,  127. 
Climate  of  Mesozoic  times,  197. 

"       modified  by  lake  influence,  225. 
"       of  Northern  Michigan,  226. 
Climatic  changes  since  man's  advent,  361. 
Clothing  of  primeval  man,  365. 
Club-mosses,  fossil,  148, 156. 
Clymenia,  character  of,  119. 
Clymenia  Sedgwicki,  116. 
Coal,  how  preserved,  160,  310. 

"     not  the  source  of  petroleum,  276, 

2S0. 
Coal-beds,  143, 156. 

"    making,  process  of,  153,  310. 

"    measures,  location  of,  136, 155. 

"  "         section  of,  139. 

"  "         thickness  of,  155. 

"  "         as  a  source  of  brine,  296, 

305. 
Coal  mine,  excursion  in,  139. 

"        "      explosion  in,  144. 

"    mining,  143. 

"    oil,  282. 

"    period,  scenery  of,  149, 150. 

"    pipes,  158. 

"    plants,  147. 

"         "      uses  of,  151. 
Cobble-stones,  222. 

"  "        utility  of,  265. 

Coger's  Ferry,  Kentucky,  344. 
Colorado  River,  denudation  by,  345,  346, 

400. 
Colorado  River,  canons  of,  345. 

"         salt  rocks,  305. 
Columbus,  Ohio,  94, 126, 165. 

"  Kentucky,  255. 

Comets  not  fuel  carriers,  409. 

"       approaching  the  sun,  418. 
Composaurus,  176. 
Comprehensive  types,  318. 
Comte  on  precipitation  of  planets,  421. 
Cone  of  the  Tiniere,  368. 


Conglomerate  of  coal-measures,  153. 

"  a  reservoir  of  brine,  301, 

305. 
Conglomerates,  how  formed,  133, 153. 
Connecticut  River  sandstone  and  tracks, 

180. 
Constitution  of  sun  and  stars,  425. 
Contemporaneousness  of  man  and  ex- 
tinct animals,  355. 
Continent,  American,  germ  of,  73,  74, 309. 
"  "         marked  out,  95, 310. 

"  "         section  across,  95. 

"  "         hydrography  of,  96. 

"  "         at  end  of  Silurian, 

123. 
Continent,  American,  in  coal -measure 

times,  149. 
Continent,  American,  at  end  of  Paleozoic 

Time,  162. 
Continent,  American,  in  Reptilian  Age, 

195v 
Continent,  American,  at  end  of  Mesozoic 

Time,  200. 
Continent,  the  old,  renovated,  219. 
Continents  formerly  submerged,  25. 

"  wearing  out,  400. 

Continental  lagoon,  94. 

"  growth,  95, 152, 195. 

"  "        unity  of,  307. 

"  development,  variation  in, 

213. 
Continental  shores,  ancient,  224. 
Convergence  of  ideas  in  man,  373,  375. 
Cook,  George  H.,  on  buried  timber,  257. 
Cooling  of  the  earth,  50,  402. 

"  "      sun,  408, 

Cope,  E.  D.,  on  reptiles,  183, 190. 
Copper,  Geology  of,  S4. 
"       as  a  boulder,  220. 
"       how  made  accessible,  334. 
"       range,  Lake  Superior,  85. 
Coral  animals,  succession  of,  326. 

"     reefs  of  Florida,  231. 
Cordier  on  the  temperature  of  the  earth, 

403. 
Corn  long  buried  at  Windsor,  Conn.,  256. 
Corniferous  limestone,  126. 

"  "  mass,  136. 

"  "         and  petroleum, 

277,  278,  289,  290. 
Cornwall  copper  mines,  439. 
Cosmical  machine,  394. 

"        matter  in  space,  410. 
Cosmogonies,  ancient,  382,  383. 
Creation  in  Aztec  mythology,  387. 
Creator.    See  " Deity"  and  "God." 
Cretaceous  age  and  reptiles,  189. 

"  brine,  306. 

Crinidians,  316. 
Crocodilians,  Cretaceous,  191. 
Cromlechs,  352. 
Crust  of  earth  partly  of  aqueous  origin, 

30. 
Crust,  first  appearance  of,  50. 

'•'  wrinkles  forming  in,  53. 
Crustacean  type  unfolded,  317. 
Crustaceans,  316. 

"  successive  types  of,  326. 


450 


INDEX. 


Crystalline  rocks,  position  of,  33. 
Cuba  to  be  annexed,  231. 
Cubic  miles  of  heat,  422. 
Culbertson,  Thaddeus,  210. 
Culminations,  lithological,  133. 
Cumberland  Mouutaius,  341, 399. 
"  River,  geology  of,  341. 

"  "      erosion  by,  344. 

Current  of  geological  events,  399. 
Cuttle-fish,  112, 116. 

"       "     bone,  111. 

"       "     fables  of,  113. 
Cuvier,  George,  202. 
Cycles  of  geology  grasped,  370. 

"       "  matter,  428. 
Cysti  deans,  316. 

Dakotah,  fossil  remains  in,  205. 
Dalcoath  tin  mine,  439. 
Dana,  J.  D.,  portrait  of,  312. 

"       "      on  continental  growth,  98. 
Danube,  piles  in,  25T. 
Danville,  Kentucky,  geology  of,  340. 
Darien,  isthmus  may  be  cut,  369. 
D'Arrest's  comet,  418. 
Darwin,  Charles,  quoted,  252. 
Dawson,  J.  W.,  on  Eozoon,  69. 

"  "       "  Devonian  plants,  129. 

"  "      "  lithological  recurren- 

ces, 133. 
Dawson,  J.W.,  on  Carboniferous  reptiles, 

169. 
Deane,  Dr.,  on  footprints,  168, 182, 183, 186 
Death  of  matter,  428. 
Deductive  reasoning  in  geology,  52,  66 

435,  436. 
Deep  mines,  439. 
Deep-sea  temperatures,  404, 444. 
Degeneration  of  organic  types,  317. 
Demosaur,  see  Dinosaur. 
Deity  works  by  methods  and  means,  30. 

"     attributes  of,  seen  in  coal-making, 

160. 
Delta  of  Mississippi,  growth  of,  230. 
Deluge,  Mosaic,  false  estimates  of,  28. 

"       traditions  of,  18. 
Dendrerpeton  Acadianum,  169. 
Denudation  on  Mendocino  coast,  31. 
"  "  ancient  shores,  56,  338. 

"  products  of,  assorted,  57. 

"  of  primeval  continent,  132 

347. 
Denudation  in  geologic  historv,  333,  399. 
Denys  de  Montfort,  fables  of,  115. 
Desert,  the  Great  American,  345,  347, 400 
Destructions  and  renovations  in  Nature, 

381. 
Development,  abuse  of  the  word,  47. 

"  not  fully  sustained,  315,321, 

Devonian  landscape  restored,  130. 
Diameter  of  earth  shortened,  405. 
JJicellocephalus  Minvesotensift,  80. 
Dinosaurians,  185, 188, 189, 191,  318. 
Diorites,  52. 

Dip  of  strata,  law  of,  136. 
JXnotherium,  202. 
Dtscina,  316. 
Disintegration,  see  Denudation. 


Distances,  astronomical,  421. 

Distribution  of  sediments,  57, 131, 132. 

Disturbance  of  Eozoic  strata,  74. 

Divine  agency  in  nature,  395. 

Dodo,  368. 

Dolerites,  52. 

Dolmens,  352,  359. 

Domestic  animals  of  primeval  times,  364 

species  from  the  East,  362. 
Dominant  ideas  in  Nature,  318. 
Drainage  features  determined,  235. 
Drift  contains  vegetable  germs,  270. 
Dromatherium,  189. 
Druidical  remains,  352. 
Druids  on  secular  revolutions,  386. 
Drummond's  Island,  124. 
Dryness  as  a  cause  of  prairies,  266. 
Dubuque,  Iowa,  trilobites  at,  81. 
Duckenfeld  mine,  439. 
Dumfriesshire,  reptiles  in,  168. 
Duncan,  Dr.,  16S. 
Duration  of  coal  period,  155. 
Durham  coal  mines,  439. 
Durydorus  serridens,  188. 
Dwight,  Dr.  T.,  quoted,  252. 
Dynasties,  geologic,  164. 

Earth  seen  from  Sirius,  406. 

Earthquakes,  beneficence  of,  333. 

Echinoderms,  316. 

Egyptian  mummies,  wheat  from,  261.      ' 

Egyptians  on  secular  revolutions,  3S3. 

Elasmosaurus,  190. 

Elephants  in  ice,  221. 

Elevations  closing  Lower  Silurian,  122. 

Elevatory  forces  growing  feebler,  401. 

Elk,  the  extinct  Irish,  354,  355,  360. 

Embryonic  stages,  324. 

Emergence  of  the  continent,  229. 

Emigrations  of  man,  362. 

Emmons,  E.,  on  Permian  rocks,  171. 

Empire  of  fishes,  164. 

"        "  reptiles,  geography  of,  195. 
Empires,  geologic,  164. 
Enaliosaurs,  position  of,  168. 

"  synthetic,  173. 

Encke's  comet,  417,  419. 
Encrinites,  107. 
Enniskillen,  petroleum  of,  276,  286,  289. 

"  test  well  at,  290. 

"  surface  wells  of,  292. 

"  flowing  oil  well  of,  443. 

Enrollment  of  chambered  shells,  119. 
Eosaurus  Acadianus,  170. 
Eozoic  Time,  72. 
Eozoon  Canadense,  68,  435. 
Eozoon  in  other  countries,  71. 
Epochs,  ages,  and  periods,  133. 
Epsom  salts  as  a  natural  product,  297. 
Equilibrium  the  end  of  motion,  392. 
Ericsson  on  solar  heat,  408. 
Erie,  Lake,  geology  of,  224. 
Erosion  on  Mendocino  coast,  31. 

"       of  American  Continent,  347. 
Eruptions,  submarine,  34. 
Esquimaux  Stone-folk,  363. 
Eternity  of  existing  order  improbable, 
381. 


INDEX. 


451 


Ether  in  space,  418. 
Euclastes  platyops,  190. 
Evans,  Dr.,  on  the  Bad  Lands,  205,  208. 
Excavation  by  glacier  torrents,  224. 
Explosions  in  coal  mines,  144. 
Extinction  of  life  in  Lower  Silurian,  106. 
Extinctions  of  animals,  360,  368. 
Eyes  of  trilobites,  81. 

Faculties  of  primeval  man,  363. 

Falkland  Islands,  369. 

Fatty  coals,  288. 

Faye's  comet,  418. 

Ferns,  fossil,  148, 163. 

Filtering  action  of  sand,  232. 

Fingal's  Cave,  34. 

Finiteness  of  geologic  periods,  370,  397. 

Finns,  363. 

Fiords,  origin  of,  220. 

Fire,  the  ordeal  by,  28. 

"    agency  of,  in  rock  formation,  32. 

"     the  reign  of,' 4!). 

"     known  to  primeval  man,  365. 

"    energies  or,  wasting,  398. 

"     -damp  in' mines,  145. 

"  -weeds,  251,  260. 
Firmaments,  426,  427. 
Fish— garpikes,  120. 

"   earliest,  126. 

"    type  unfolded,  317. 
Fishes,  empire  of,  164. 

"       succession  of,  326. 
Fixed  stars  in  motion,  392. 
Florida  once  a  coral  reef,  201. 
"       growth  of,  231. 
"       Reef,  327. 
Flowing  oil  wells,  284,  2S5. 
Folds  in  the  mountains,  310. 
Food  of  primeval  man,  365. 
Footprints  of  Labyriuthodonts,  173. 
"         in  Connecticut  Valley,  182. 
"  "  "  "       not  or- 

nithic, 185. 
Foraminifera,  nature  of,  69. 
Forbes,  E.,  on  footprints,  182. 
Force,  forms  of,  393. 

Forces  struggling  toward  stagnation,  428. 
Forest-growths  alternating,  252. 
Forests  encroached  upon  by  prairies,  268, 

270. 
Formations  furnishing  oil,  288. 
Fossils,  how  and  what  they  teach,  13. 
Foster  and  Whitney  on  Pictured  Rocks, 

87. 
Fracastoro,  opinions  of,  26. 
Fragmental  rocks,  how  formed,  133. 
Freiburg  mines,  439. 
Friction  in  the  heavens,  417. 
Frog,  position  of,  167. 
Frost,  invasion  of,  214. 
Fruit  in  Northern  Michigan,  226. 
Fucoids  at  Lake  Superior,  83. 
Fundamental  plan  in  animals,  100. 
Fungidw,  327. 
Furrows,  glacial,  215,  217. 

Gangway  in  mining,  143. 
Ganoid  tishes,  165. 


Garpikes  of  North  America,  120. 

"         a  retrospective  type,  320. 
Garrigou  on  primeval  man,  366. 
Gas  wells,  283. 

"    with  petroleum,  2S3. 
Gaspe,  geology  of,  128. 
Gasteropods,  81,  316. 
Genesee  shale,  position  of,  127. 

"  "a  source  of  oil,  288. 

Geographical  range  of  man  and  animals, 

377. 
Geological  succession  of  organic  types, 

336. 
Geology  in  petroleum-finding,  279, 28S. 
"         "  salt-finding,  304. 
"       of  Europe  at  man's  advent,  361. 
Georgian  Bay,  geology  of,  225. 
Gerhard  on  the  prairies,  268. 
Germ  of  American  Continent,  73, 97, 132. 
Germs  wanting  in  lake-sediments,  270. 

"      present  in  glacial  drift,  270. 
Gestation  as  determining  rank,  325. 
Glacial  epochs,  theories  of,  441. 

"  "       references  on,  443. 

Glacier  of  Bute  Inlet,  212. 

"      phenomena  wanting  on  Pacific 
coast,  221. 
Glacier  action  beneficent,  227. 

"  "     general,  375. 

Glaciers  in  temperate  America,  214. 
"       marks  of,  214. 
"       erosion  by,  215,  344. 
"       renovating  the  continent,  219. 
"       existing,  221. 
"       seeds  buried  by,  270. 
Glasgow  (Kentucky)  oil  region,  288,  292. 
Glyptonotus  antarcticus,  321,  322. 
Gneiss,  composition  and  position  of,  58. 
Goal  of  the  struggling  forces,  428. 
God,  history  of  matter  leads  to,  40. 

"     declared  in  nebular  hypothesis,  46. 
Goessman  on  Petite  Anse,  306. 
Gold,  how  made  accessible,  335. 
Goniatites,  characters  of,  119. 
Goniatites  Allei,  116. 

"         Marshallensis,  septa  of,  119. 
Gradation  al  succession  of  organic  types, 

315,  316. 
Graham's  Island,  origin  of,  23. 
Grains  introduced  from  the  East,  362. 
Grand  Portal,  Pictured  Rocks,  89. 
"      Sable,  Lake  Superior,  93. 
41      Traverse  region,  climate  of,  226, 
227. 
Granites,  composition  of,  52. 

"        relative  position  of,  58. 
Graptolites,  316. 
Grasp  of  geologic  time,  370. 
Gravel-beds  with  human  remains,  352. 
Gray,  Asa,  against  mummied  wheat,  261. 
Great  American  Desert,  345,  400. 

"      Consolidated  copper  mines,  439. 
Green  Bay,  124. 

"      M  oun tains,  marks  of  submergence 
on,  229. 
Gucumatz  in  Aztec  mythology,  388. 
Gulf  States,  surface  materials  of,  222. 
"    Stream  and  continental  growth,  231. 


452 


INDEX. 


Gwennap  tin  mines,  440. 

Gypsum  of  sea-water,  how  formed,  60. 

"        in  Salina  Group,  125. 

"       origin  of  beds  of,  29T. 

11       mode  of  occurrence  of,  302. 

Hadrian,  coins  of,  with  living  seeds,  260. 

Hadrosaurus  Foulki,  192, 193. 

Hairy  mammoth  with  man,  358,  359. 

Halcyonoids,  327. 

Hall,  James,  on  Potsdam  sandstone,  78. 

"  "       "  Lower  Helderberg,  125. 

"  "        "  Mesozoic  geology,  210. 

"  "       "  Niagara  Falls,  245. 

"  "       "  central  heat,  434. 

Hamilton  Group,  126, 127. 

"  "       as  a  source  of  oil,  289. 

Hamites,  characters  of,  119. 
Harrison  on  buried  firs,  253. 
Hatchets  of  flint,  356. 
Hawkins,  B.  W.,  Restorations  by,  192. 
Hayden,  F.  V.,  on  Mesozoic  geology,  210. 
Heat,  central,  doctrine  of,  433. 

"     agency  of,  in  rock  formation,  32. 

"     dispensed  by  the  sun,  408. 

"     solar,  destined  to  be  exhausted,411. 

"         "     how  Sustained,  410. 

"        "     amount  of,  422. 

"     developed  by  percussion,  410. 
Heights  of  the  lakes,  243. 
Helderberg  group,  Lower,  125. 

"  Mountains,  125. 

Helmholtz  on  cooling  of  the  sun,  411. 
"  "  destiny  of  solar   system, 

420. 
Herpetarchy,176. 
Herpetoift  birds,  184. 

Herschel,  Sir  William,  on  nebular  hypoth- 
esis, 41. 
Herschel,  Sir  William,  on  firmaments,  425. 
Herzer,  H.,  on  fossil  fishes,  127. 
Heterocercal  tails,  165,  326. 
Higher  level  of  the  lakes,  241,  244. 
Highland  Rim,  in  Tennessee,  341, 342. 
Hilgard,  E.  W.,  on  Petite  Anse,  306. 
Hindoo  cosmogony,  3S3. 
Hitchcock,  C.  H.,  on  Maine,  126. 

"         Dr.  E.,  on  footprints,  168, 182, 

185. 
Hitchcock,  Dr.  E.,  on  drift  phenomena, 

217. 
Hohenberger  mines,  439. 
Hollow  bones  of  reptiles,  185, 189. 
Holmes,  F.  S.,  on  human  relics,  356. 
Homocercal  tails,  165,  326. 
Hooker  on  insular  floras,  369. 
Hopkins,  E.  and  W.,  on  central  heat,  435. 
Horner  on  Gulf  Stream  soundings,  404. 
Horse  a  native  of  America,  210. 
Houghton,  D.,  on  Michigan  geology,  82. 
Hunt,  T.  S.,  as  a  chemical  geologist,  58. 

"         "     on  petroleum/289, 290. 

"         "      "   central  heat,  433. 
Huron,  Lake,  a  modifier  of  climate,  227. 

"       Mountains,  339. 
Huronian  system,  64. 
Hydrarchos,  204. 
Hydrographic  outlines  of  N.  America,  96. 


Hydrographic  changes  in  China,  369. 
Hyera,  upheaval  of,  23. 

Iberian  tribes,  363. 

Ice,  reign  of,  213. 

Ice-born  torrents,  222. 

Ichnolites,  183. 

Ichthyosaurs,  174, 318. 

Ichthyosaurus,  178, 179. 

Ideas,  dominant,  318. 

Ideas  in  fixed  succession,  324,  328. 

Identical  thoughts  repeated,  32S. 

Immediate  Divine  agency,  420. 

Igneous  rocks  ofFingal's  Cave,  34. 

"       fluidity  of  the  earth,  49. 
Iguanodon,  99, 188, 189. 
Illinois  prairies,  265. 

"      River,  269. 
Implements  of  primeval  man,  352. 
Incandescent  terrestrial  matter,  36. 
Indians  and  prairies,  266,  271. 
Indian  and  mastodon,  240. 
Indians  on  secular  revolutions,  383. 
Indian-summer,  271. 
Inferiority,  criteria  of,  323. 
Infinity,  borders  of,  423. 
Intellect  stimulated  to  action,  336,  373. 
"        of  primeval  man,  363. 
"        correlated  to  the  universe,  373. 
Intelligence  in  Nature,  see  Mind. 
Intermittent  oil  wells,  285. 
Intuitive  sentiments,  391. 
Inundation  of  prairie  region,  209. 
Ionics  on  periodical  catastrophes,  386. 
Irish  elk,  354,  355. 
Iron  Age,  353. 

"  -bearing  rocks,  64. 

"    Mountain,  Missouri,  106. 
Islands,  upheaval  of,  23. 
Isle  Royale,  S4. 
Ives,  Lieutenant,  on  Colorado,  345. 

Jews  on  secular  catastrophes,  384. 
Joachimsthal  mine,  439. 
Joggins,  South,  reptiles  at,  169, 170. 
Jupiter  and  world  harmonies,  329. 

"       retardation  of,  419. 
Jurassic  Age,  176. 

Kalpa  in  Hindoo  cosmogony,  3S4. 

Kansas  salt-rocks,  305. 

Keesville,  Potsdam  sandstone  at,  77. 

Kelly's  Island,  165. 

Kent's  Hole  with  human  remains,  355. 

Kentucky,  blue-grass  region  in,  82. 

"         marble,  125. 

"         oil  regions,  2SS,  289. 

"         River,  erosion  by,  344. 

"         salt-rocks,  305. 
Kepler  on  comets,  409, 418. 
Kewenaw  Point,  84,  839. 
Key  to  ancient  geography  of  North  Amer- 
ica, 224. 
Keys  to  history  of  the  past,  see  Speci- 
mens, Illustrative. 
King,  Dr.,  on  footprints,  168. 
Kjcek  kenmoeddings,  360,  364. 
Knox  County,  Ohio,  gas  well  in,  283. 


INDEX. 


453 


Koch,  Dr.,  on  Zeuglodon,  204. 

"      "     "   prehistoric  man,  356. 
Koninck  on  Pentacrinus,  321. 
Kuttenberger  mine,  440. 

Laboratory  of  Nature,  282. 
Labyrinthodonts,  168, 171, 172, 173, 317. 
"  a  synthetic  type,  318. 

Lacustrine  origin  of  prairie  soils,  268. 

' '  sediments  without  germs,  270. 

La  Denise  Mountain,  356. 
Lcelaps  aquilunguis,  191, 192. 
Lagoon,  Continental,  94, 105. 
Lake  Superior,  geology  of,  78, 82, 84, 339. 

"  "         outlines  of,  S4. 

"  "         in  Mesozoic  times,  196. 

1  "        glacier  action  near,  215. 

"  "         why  not  salt,  295. 

"     basins  excavated,  220. 

"  "       where  located,  225. 

"     habitations,  piles  in,  257. 
Lakes,  the  great,  geology  of,  124. 

"      from  freshening  of  seas,  204,  232. 

"      related  to  ancient  shores,  224. 

"      of  Central  New  York,  225. 

"      influence  of,  on  climate,  225. 

'*      small,  how  formed,  236,  237. 

"      filled  up,  237. 

"      former  high  water  of,  241. 
Lamellibranchs,  316. 
Lancashi  rectos  of,  253. 
Land,  first  SRrgence  of,  72. 
Landscape,  ideal,  of  Devonian  Age,  130. 
"  "      "  Carboniferous  times, 

150, 158. 
Landscape,  ideal,  of  Eeptilian  Age,  177, 

181. 
Lapham,  J.  A.,  on  climate,  226. 
Laplace,  nebular  hypothesis  of,  41. 

"       on  mean  day,  403, 418. 
Lapps,  363. 

Laramie  limestone,  136. 
Lartet  on  human  remains,  355,  357,  366. 
Lasalle,  Illinois,  mines  at,  439. 
Last  term  of  organic  existence,  373. 

"    man,  413. 
Lauren tian  system,  63,  33S. 

"  estuary,  235. 

Laws  of  Nature,  395,  420. 
Leaves  of  plauts,arrangement  of,  328. 
Lectonia  of  the  New  World,  200. 

*    "        ancient,  369. 
Leidy,  Dr.,  on  reptiles,  178, 190. 

"        "      "  mammals,  210. 
Lemont,  Illinois,  old  river  bed  at,  269. 
Lepidodendron,  157. 

"  a  synthetic  type,  318. 

Lepidosteus,  166,  320. 

"  Huronensis,  120. 

"  oculatus,  120. 

Lescarbault  and  intramercurial  planet, 

44, 330. 
Lesquereux,  L.,  on  fossil  vegetation,  254. 
Level  of  lakes  formerly  higher,  241. 
Leveling  of  the  mountains,  397. 
Liege,  human  remains  at,  355. 
Life,  a  ray  of,  65. 

"    power  of,  to  resist  extremes, '.'»»' 


Life,  even  in  Laureutian,  68. 
"     front  of  the  procession  of,  73, 315. 
"    various  conditions  of,  9S. 
"    programme  of,  102,  315. 

Lifetime  of  a  universe— what  is  it  ?  430. 

Light,  movements  of,  421. 

Lightnings  in  the  primeval  storm,  54. 

Ligurian  tribes,  363. 

Lilies,  Stone,  105. 

Limestones  of  chemical  origin,  58. 
"  recurrences  of,  133. 

Limestone  masses  of  N.  America,  134,224. 
"      trends  of,  135. 

Lindley  on  vitality  of  seeds,  260. 

Lindsay  on  vitality  of  bulbs,  261. 

Lingula,  modern,  79. 

Linyula  prima  and  antiqua,  79,  316. 

LUhodomus,  a  stone-borer,  19. 

Lithological  recurrences,  132. 

Lockport,  geology  of,  125. 

Logan,  Sir  W.  E.,  on  ancient  limestones, 
58. 

Logan,  Sij-  W.  E.,  on  Laureutian  and  Hu- 
ronian,  63. 

Logan,  Sir  W.  E.,  on  Carboniferous  rep- 
tiles, 169. 

London  Bridge,  piles  of,  256. 

London,  Ontario,  oil  wells  at,  278. 

Lookout  Mountain,  342. 

Louisburg,  change  of  level  at,  22. 

Lover's  Leap,  Mackinac  Island,  248. 

Lower  Helderberg  Group,  125. 

Luminosity  the  first  manifestation,  38. 

Luxuriance  of  coal  vegetation,  153, 156. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  158. 
"  "         on  Carboniferous  rep- 

tiles, 169. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  on  footprints,  182. 
"  "  "  cretaceous  pebbles, 

223. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  on  buried  timber,  259. 
"  "  "  secular      catastro- 

phes, 390. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  on  Eozoon,  435. 

Machinery  of  the  heavens  running  down, 

417. 
Mackinac  Island,  126, 165,  247,  248. 
Macroural  crustaceans,  326. 
Madison,  Indiana,  geology  of,  340. 
Mtidler  on  firmamental  'movements,  392, 

426. 
Madrepores,  327. 
Mammals,  advent  of,  188. 
"  reign  of,  199. 

11  cemeteries  of,  204,  205. 

Mammalian  idea  dominant,  318. 
Mammoth,  239. 

"  preserved  in  ice,  263. 

"  with  primeval  man,  354,  357. 

"  restored,  359. 

"  delineated  by  primeval  art- 

ists, 366. 
Mammoth  vein  of  coal,  156. 
Man,  advent  of,  239. 
"     primeval,  350. 

"      and  mastodon  contemporary,  240. 
"     rises  above  the  wreck  of  matter,  431. 


454 


INDEX. 


Manitoulin  Islands,  124. 

"       petroleum  at,  276, 2S9. 
Mautell,  Dr.,  182, 189. 
Marcellus  shale,  127. 

*«  "      as  a  source  of  oil,  289. 

Marcou  on  Niagara  Falls,  245. 
Mariacrinm,  125. 

Maritime  plants  suddenly  appearing,  257. 
Marl,  origin  of,  238. 
Marquette,  glacier  action  at,  215. 
Marsh,  G.  P.,  quoted,  252,  253. 
Marsh,  O.  C,  on  reptiles,  170, 186. 
Marshall  Group,  129, 131, 165,  439. 

"        sandstone   as  a   reservoir   of 

brine,  297. 
Martins,  Charles,  on  deep  sea  tempera- 
tures, 444. 
Mastodon  and  mammoth,  239. 
Matter,  forms  of,  37. 
Mauvaises  terres,  205,  206. 
Mayer  on  variability  of  the  day,  406. 

"       "  solar  heat,  422. 
Mediterranean  Sea  in  America,  196, 199. 
Meek,  F.  B.,  on  Permian  rocks,' 172. 

"         "       "  Mesozoic  and  Cenozoic 

fossils,  210. 
Megalonyx  Jeffersoni,  255. 
Megalosaurus,  18$. 
Melleville  on  primeval  man,  356. 
Meuander  on  secular  catastrophes,  384. 
Menu,  Institutes  of,  on  cosmogony,  383 
Metamorphism  of  rocks,  33. 
Metamorphoses  of  Ovid,  quoted,  39. 
Meteorites,  410. 

Method  in  continental  growth,  94,  307. 
"        "  history  of  life,  98, 102,  314. 
"        "  coai-piaking,  160. 
Michigan  as  an  oil  region,  290,  291. 

"         salt  wells  of,  304. 
Michigan,  Lake,  geology  of,  225. 

"  "     a  modifier  of  climate,226. 

"  "     former  outlet  of,  269. 

Miller,  Hugh,  129. 

"  "      portrait  of,  137. 

Millstone  grit,  how  formed,  153. 
Millstones  in  primeval  times,  365. 
Milwaukee,  geology  of,  125. 
Mind  in  Nature,  16,  98, 104. 
Mine,  descent  to,  139. 
Mines,  ancient,  in  Spain,  257. 

"       depth  of,  439. 
Miners'  Castle2  Pictured  Rocks,  86. 
Mining  and  miners,  143, 146. 
Mining  implements,  ancient,  of  Lake  Su 

perior,  257. 
Mining  implements  in  Spain,  257. 
Mining  of  timber  in  New  Jersey,  257, 25S, 
Minnesota  Mine,  Michigan,  440. 
Missionary  Ridge,  342. 
Mississippi  River,  geological   relations 

of,  96,  235. 
Mississippi  River,  sediments  of,  398. 
"  Group,  136. 

"         Valley,  effect  of  depression 

in,  25. 
Missouri  River,  origin  of,  201. 
Moa,  368. 
Moisture  as  a  cause  of  prairies,  266. 


Molluscous  animals,  102. 

"  .  "        order  of,  316. 

Molten  period  of  the  earth,  36. 
Monadnock,  marks  of  submergence  on, 

Montreal,  terraces  at,  230. 
Moral  nature  of  primeval  man,  363. 
"  "       "  man  differentiates  him, 

376. 
Morlot  on  antiquity  of  man,  368. 
Mornings  of  eternity,  431. 
Mosasaurus,  190. 
Motion  characterizes  Nature,  392. 

"       is  mechanical,  394. 
Mounds,  burial,  260, 350.. 
Mountains  to  be  leveled,  397. 
Multiplication  of  similar  parts,  323. 
Murchisou  on  gneiss,  5S. 

"  "  gold  regions,  335. 

Museum  of  University  of  Michigan,  176. 

"         "  Yale  College,  186. 

"         British,  186. 

"         Amherst,  186. 

"         Wood's,  203. 

Naked  reptiles,  167. 

Nantucket,  change  of  level  at,  22. 

Nashville,  Tennessee,  situation  of,  341. 

"  "  geology  of,  341. 

Nature,  interpretation  of,  15. 

"       mind  in,  16. 
Nautilus,  the  Paper,  110.    1 

"        Pearly,  114. 
Nautilus  pompilius,  114. 
Nebulae,  425. 

Nebular  hypothesis,  41, 42. 
Neptune  and  world-harmonies,  329. 
Nescience  in  geologic  theory,  434. 
Nevada,  salt-beds  of,  295. 
Newberry,  J.  S.,  on  fishes,  127. 
"  "      "  reptiles  170. 

"  "      "  fossil  vegetation,  254. 

15  "      "  petroleum,  288, 291. 

"  "      "  Colorado  River,  345. 

New  Brunswick,  change  of  level  in,  22. 
"    Jersey,  change  of  level  in,  22. 
"         "       cretaceous  reptiles  in,  190. 
New  Red  Sandstone,  168. 
Newton  on  comets,  409. 

"         "  resisting  medium,  418. 
Niagara  limestone,  123. 

"  "  mass,  134. 

"  "         as  an  oil  rock,  280. 

"        River,  124. 

"  "      of  Mesozoic  Time,  201. 

"  "      ancient  gorge  of,  220, 235. 

"  "      a  key  to  ancient  geogra- 

phy, 224. 
Niagara  Gorge,  243. 

i(  "      age  of,  245. 

Nilsson  on  primeval  man,  363. 
Noble  Oil  Well,  274. 
Noquet,  Bay  de,  124. 
North  Carolina,  change  of  level  in,  22. 
Nova  Scotia,  coal-measures  of,  155. 
Nucleus  of  the  earth,  shrinkage  of,  199, 

Occupations  of  primeval  man,  363. 


INDEX. 


455 


Ocean,  agency  of,  in  rock-making,  56. 
"      swallowing  up  the  land,  399. 
"      as  a  conductor  of  heat,  404, 444. 
Ohio  oil  regions,  288. 

"     salt  rocks,  305. 
Oil,  something  ahout,  273. 
"    excitement,  273. 
11    mistaken  opinions  about,  275. 
"    smellers,  275. 

"    accumulation,  conditions  of,  287. 
"    regions  of  United  States,  292. 
"    springs,  Ontario,  see  Enniskillen. 
"    wells,  flowing,  list  of,  443. 
Old  fields,  252,  200. 

"    Red  Sandstone,  131, 439. 
Onondaga  salt  formation,  303. 
Ontario,  Lake,  geology  of,  225. 
Oolitic  reptiles,  188. 
Opisthocoelian  vertebrae,  188. 
Orbitoides,  nature  of,  69. 
Order  of  Nature  temporary,  382. 
Orders  of  animals,  103. 
Ordinal  groups,  succession  of,  316. 

"       types,  324. 
Oreodon  Culbertsoni,  208. 
Organic  types,  succession  of,  315,  316. 
Orient  the  birthplace  of  man,  362. 
Oriskany  sandstone,  126. 
Ormoceras  tenuifdum,  115. 
Ornaments  in  primeval  times,  359. 
Oruithichnites,  168, 182. 
Orographic  outlines  of  N.  America,  96. 
Orpheus  on  the  Great  Year,  383,  3S4. 
Orthoceratites,  109, 115, 120,  316. 
Oscillations  of  the  land,  19. 

"  in  United  States,  22. 

"  in  ancient  times,  152. 

"  use  of,  in  coal-making,  161. 

Ostracoid  crustaceans,  318. 
Outlet  of  lakes  formerly  obstructed,  242. 
Ovid,  quotation  from,  39. 
Owen,  D.  D.,  on  Potsdam  sandstone,  79. 
"         "        "  Mesozoic  geology,  210. 
"         "        "  Kentucky  geology,  255. 
"         "      portrait  of,  211. 

Pachyderms,  203. 

Packard,  A.  S.,  on  primeval  man,  360. 

Paint  Creek  and  petroleum,  276. 

Palceophycus  arthrophycus,  83. 

Palceotherium,  202. 

Paleozoic  Time,  73. 

Paradoxides  Harlani,  76. 

Paris,  fossils  of,  202. 

Passing  events  speak  of  the  past,  238. 

Pearly  Nautilus,  114. 

Peat,  how  prepared,  237. 

"     oil  from,  2S2. 
Pebbles,  glacial,  218. 

"       formed  by  water,  223. 
Pecopteris,  163. 
J'elorosaurus,  188. 
Pendleton  mine,  439» 
Pennsylvania  oil  regions,  288. 
Pentacrinus,  41, 107. 
Percussion  a  source  of  heat,  410. 
Perfectibility  of  the  race,  372. 
Perigord  in  primeval  times,  354,  S57. 


Periodical  destructions  and  renovations, 

381. 
Periods,  ages,  and  epochs,  133. 
Periods,  geological,  not  always  vast,  369. 
Permian  Period,  171. 
Perpetual  motion,  390. 
Perpetuity — where  is  it  ?  423. 
Persians  on  destructions  by  fire,  386. 
Petite  Anse,  salt  deposit  of,  306. 
Petroleum,  something  about,  273. 

"  as  an  evidence  of  organiza- 

tion, 67,  281. 
Petroleum,  illusory  ideas  about,  275. 

"  characters  of?  280. 

"  in  all  formations,  281. 

"  artificially  produced,  281. 

"  •        distilled  from  shale,  281. 

"  causes  of  its  flow,  284. 

"  quantities  of,  discharged,  286. 

"  prices  of,  2S6. 

"  accumulation,  conditions  of, 

287. 
Petroleum  regions  in  U.  States,  288,  292. 
Phascolotlierium,  189. 
Phoenix,  fable  of,  386. 
Phyllotaxy,  328. 
Physics,  wonders  of,  422. 
Pictou,  reptiles  at,  169. 
Pictured  Rocks,  Lake  Superior,  85. 
Pile-habitations,  352,  360,  364. 
Piles  of  London  Bridge,  etc.,  256,  257. 
Pines  succeeding  hard-wood  forests,  252. 
Plan,  see  Method. 

Plans  of  animal  structure,  101, 175, 314. 
Planets,  genesis  of,  44. 

"        may  still  be  thrown  off,  44. 
"        periodic  times  of,  329. 
Plants  before  auimals,  66. 
1      first  tree-like,  127. 
1      appearing  in  new  localities,  250. 
Plato  on  catastrophes,  386. 
Plesiosaurus,  178, 179,  318. 
Plum-seed  long  preserved,  262. 
Poisson  on  cooling  of  the  earth,  403. 
Polyps  and  coral  reefs,  326, 327. 
Polypterus,  320. 
Popol  Vuh  of  the  Aztecs,  387. 
Porcupine  Mountains,  339. 
Porites,  327. 

Portage  Lake,  Lake  Superior,  85. 
Portland  (Connecticut)  quarries,  182. 
Positivism  in  geologic  theory,  434. 
Pot-holes  in  ancient  river-beds,  269. 
Potsdam  group,  76. 

"        sandstone  in  New  York,  77. 

"  "  extension  of,  78, 94. 

"        period,  climate  of,  105. 
Pouillet  on  central  heat,  403. 
Poulp,  111. 
Power,  Madam,  111. 
Prairie,  sketch  of,  264. 
Prairies  and  their  treelessness,  264. 

"        origin  of,  266. 
Prehistoric  man,  351. 
Primeval  storm,  55. 
Primordial  earth,  38,  307,  308. 
Problems  ever  present  to  man,  380. 
Procession  of  organic  forms,  315. 


456 


INDEX. 


Procoelian  vertebra,  188. 
Programme  of  animal  life,  102. 
Progress  of  events  before  our  eyes,  272. 
"         "  man  as  an  intelligence,  353, 
370. 
Prophecies  of  man  in  Nature,  331. 
Protozoa,  69,  316. 
Prout,Dr.H.A.,208. 
Providence  in  Nature,  333,  395. 
Pterichthys,  99. 

Pterodactyls  or  Pterosaurs,  168, 178. 
Pterodactyl,  haunts  of  the,  181. 
"  footprints  of,  182. 

Pythagoras  on  catastrophes,  385,  390. 

Quincy,  Illinois,  prairies  of,  268. 
Quincy  mine,  440. 
Quadrupeds,  extinct,  202. 

"  order  of  advent  of,  203. 

"  cemeteries  of,  204. 

"  American,    with    primeval 

man,  357. 
Quadrupeds,  European,   with   primeval 

man,  354. 
Quantities  of  oil  discharged,  286. 
Quiches,  National  Book  of  the,  387. 

Radiated  animals,  102. 

"  "        order  of,  315. 

Radiation  of  heat  from  the  earth,  403,404. 

"  "  "       sun,  408. 

Rain,  the  lirst,  54. 
Ramphorhynchus,  183, 184. 
Raniceps  Lyelli,  170. 
Raspberry  seeds  in  ancient  tomb,  260. 
Recession  of  Niagara  Falls,  245. 
Reconstruction  of  extinct  forms,  175. 
Reef-building  polyps,  327. 
Refrigeration  of  the  earth,  403. 
Reid,  Dr.,  on  the  course  of  Nature,  391. 
Reign  of  fishes,  164. 
"      "  reptiles,  173. 
"       "  mammals,  199. 
"       "  ice,  213. 
Reindeer  epoch,  353,  357. 

"        folk,  357. 

"        extinction  of,  360. 
Religious  nature  of  primeval  man,  366. 
Renovation  of  continent,  219,  349,  401. 
Renovations  and  destructions  in  Nature, 

381. 
Replenishing  of  solar  heat,  409. 
Reptiles,  earliest,  166. 

"       reign  of,  166, 173. 

"       classification  of,  167. 

"       geological  history  of,  168. 

"       oldest  in  United  States,  170. 

"        former  abundance  of,  194. 

"       geography  of  empire  of,  195. 
Reptile  type  unfolded,  317. 
Reptilian  idea  dominant,  318. 
Reservoirs  of  water  in  drift,  232. 

"  "  petroleum,  282. 

Rest,  forces  tend  toward,  393,  396. 
Resurrection  of  matter,  429. 
Retardation  of  earth's  rotation,  405. 
"  "  heavenly  bodies,  419. 

Retrospective  types,  320. 


Revolutions  more  and  less  general,  374 
Rhinoceros,  fossil,  208. 

"  with  man  in  Europe,  354 

Richmond,  Indiana,  geology  of,  340. 
Rigollot  on  primeval  man,  356. 
Rings  generated  in  cosmical  vapor,  44. 
River-beds,  ancient,  220,  269. 

"     courses  marked  out,  224. 
Rivers  from  dissolving  glaciers,  222,  223. 
Robinson's  Folly,  Mackinac  Island,  248. 
Rocks,  specimens  of,  easily  obtained,  62. 

"      classification  of,  437. 
Rock-salt  at  Goderich,  304. 

"        "  Petite  Anse,  306. 
Rocky  Mountains  in  embryo,  94. 

"  "  developing,  201. 

"  "  wearing  down,  230. 

Romans  on  catastrophes,  386. 
Rominger,  Dr.  C,  176. 
Rorerbiihel  mines,  439. 
Rorison  on  precipitation  of  planets,  420. 
Ruminants,  203. 
Rush  of  passing  events,  414. 

Safford,  J.  M.,  on  Tennessee,  341. 
Saginaw  Bay,  246. 

"        salt  wells,  304. 
Salamander,  167. 
Saliferous  system,  296. 
Salina  period  and  group,  125,  297. 

"      salt  basin,  303. 
Salisburia,  321. 
Salt,  common,  its  origin  in  the  sea,  60, 296. 

"    works  at  Mason  City,  294. 

"    universality  of,  294. 

"    and  gypsum,  294. 

"    the  residuum  of  the  ocean,  295. 

"    lakes,  295. 

"    plains,  origin  of,  295. 

"    beds  of  Nevada,  295. 

"    region  of  Europe,  296. 

"    geology  of,  296. 

"    in  coal-measures,  296. 

"    not  attributable  to  secondary  action, 

297. 
Salt  formations,  origin  of,  297. 

"  "  of  U.  States,  303,  304,  305. 

"    accumulation  of,  29S,  299. 

"    basins,  299. 

"    springs  often  illusory,  299. 

"    where  to  bore  for,  299. 

"    in  Michigan,  304. 

"    in  Salina  group,  125. 

"    at  Petite  Anse,  306. 

"    wells  not  artesian,  300. 
Sand,  glacial,  218. 
Sandstone,  Old  Red,  131. 
Sandstones  of  Venango  County,  Pa.,  275. 
Sandusky,  geology  of,  126, 165. 
Santorin,  new  island  of,  23. 
Satellites,  origin  of,  45. 
Saturn  and  his  rings,  45. 

"         "    world-harmonies,  329. 
Sauropus  prlmcevm,  18S. 
Savoy  Place  and  its  piles,  257. 
Scenes  in  a  coal  mine,  141. 
Schmerling  on  primeval  man,  355. 
Schoolcraft  on  Pictured  Rocks,  87. 


INDEX. 


457 


Science  and  theology,  46. 
Scotland,  sandstone  of,  131. 
Sculpture  in  primeval  times,  365. 
Scythians  on  secular  revolutions,  3S2. 
Sea-urchins,  316. 
Sea-weeds  of  Potsdam,  83. 

"  "  Upper  Silurian,  124. 

Sediments  formed  and  distributed,  57. 

"  distribution  of,  132. 

Seeds,  vitality  of,  250,  260. 
Selma,  Alabama,  reptiles  of,  190. 
Septa  in  chambered  shells,  119. 
Serapis,  Temple  of,  19. 
Serpents,  position  of,  168. 
Shaft,  of  a  mine,  139. 

"     miners  descending  a,  140. 
Shaler,  N.  S.,  on  central  heat,  433. 
Shales  a  source  of  petroleum,  281, 282, 288. 
Shell-heaps  of  primeval  times,  360,  364. 
Shells,  fossil  and  recent,  14. 
Shumard,  B.  F.,  on  Potsdam  sandstone,79 
"  "       "  Lower  Helderberg,  125. 

Siberian  ice  and  elephants,  221. 
Sibylline  Books,  384. 
Sigillaria,  158, 159. 
Silurian  rocks,  75. 

"       Upper,  rocks  and  fossils  of,  124. 
Sipnon  in  chambered  shells,  119. 
Sivatherium,  203. 
Skovmose  in  Denmark,  253. 
Smell  of  petroleum  illusory,  277, 278. 
Smithsonian  Institution,  210. 
Solar  heat  wasting,  409. 

"       "    amount  of,  422. 

"     system  in  a  blaze,  36,  38. 

"  "      rotating  in  a  gaseous  state, 

43. 
Solenhofen,  fossil  of,  184. 
Specimens  of  rocks  about  our  doors,  62. 
"  illustrative,  of  animals,  pre 

served,  32. 
Specimens,    illustrative,    of   primordial 

matter,  41. 
Specimens,    illustrative,     of     planetary 

stages,  46. 
Spectroscope  and  its  revelations,  425. 
Speech  possessed  by  primeval  man,  363. 
Spirifers,  316. 
Spiritual  bodies,  372. 

"        phenomena,  371. 
Spirits  in  search  of  oil,  2S0. 
Splintery  coals,  288. 
Sponges  in  Lower  Silurian,  82. 
Springs  and  wells,  233. 
Spring-poles  in  well-boring,  2S6. 
Soils,  changes  in,  and  their  effects,  251. 

u     of  prairies,  see  Prairies. 
Somme,  human  relics  in  valley  of,  356, 367. 
Southern  States,  surface  materials  of,  222, 

229. 
St.  Acheul,  flint  implements  at,  356. 
"  Augustine,  changes  of  level  at,  22. 
"  Clair  Lake  and  Flats,  241. 
"  John's  group  of  rocks,  74. 
"       "      period,  climate  of,  105. 
"  Joseph,  Michigan,  climate  of,  226. 
"  Louis,  Missouri,  prairies  of,  26S. 
Star-tishes,  316. 


u 


Stars  as  solar  centres,  425. 
Steenstrup  on  skovmose,  253. 
Stevens,  Cape,  work  of  the  elements  at,  27. 
Stigmaria,  158. 

Stoics  on  periodical  catastrophes,  3S5. 
Stone  Age,  353. 
"      lilies,  105. 
Stones  in  the  soil,  utility  of,  265. 
Stony  Point,  glacier  action  at,  217. 
Strata,  aqueous  origin  of,  18,  30. 

"      not  created  as  we  find  them,  29„ 
"      mechanical  and  chemical,  62 
Streptospondylus,  188. 
Stria?,  glacial,  215,  217. 
Sturgeon,  166. 

Submergence  of  the  continents,  22S. 
"  "  prairie  region,  246. 

Subsidence  of  the  continent,  222,  311. 
Substance,  other  forms  of  probable,  372. 
Subterranean  clay  basins,  232. 
Succession  of  strata,  133. 

m  "  organic  types,  326. 

"  "  ideas  repeated,  327. 

Suckers  of  cephalopods,  114. 
Sugar-Loaf,  Mackinac  Island,  247. 
Sumnerville,  Tennessee,  geology  of,  255. 
Sun-cooling  off,  408. 
"    amount  of  heat  from,  408. 
"    distance  of,  421. 
"    constitution  of,  426. 
Superior,  Lake,  see  Lake  Superior. 
Superiority  of  man  over  brutes,  375. 

"  criteria  of,  323. 

Supplies  of  petroleum,  286. 
Surface  materials  of  Southern  States,  222. 
"  "        assorted,  232. 

"      oil  at  Enniskillen,  292. 
"      shows  of  petroleum,  276. 
Sutro  tunnel,  440. 
Swales,  267. 
Swallow,  G.  C,  on  Missouri,  125. 

"  "      "  Permian  rocks,  172. 

Syenites,  52. 

Symplegades,  character  of,  25. 
Synthetic  reptiles,  173. 

"         types,  31 S. 
Syracuse,  New  York,  geology  of,  125. 

Taste  of  primeval  man,  359,  365. 
Teeth  of  reptiles,  191. 
Telerpeton  Elgincnse,  166. 
Teliost  fishes,  317. 
Temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  20. 
Tennessee,  oil  regions  of,  2S8. 
salt  rocks  of,  305. 
central  basin  of,  342. 
Tepen  in  Aztec  mythology,  388. 
Terebratulas,  316. 
Terraces,  230,  246,  247. 
Terrestrial  habits  in  respect  to  rank,  323. 
Tertiary  mammals,  205. 
"        vegetation,  254. 
Texas  salt  rocks,  305. 
Theistic  opinions  sustained.  46. 
Theory  of  salt  formations,  301. 
Thompson,  Sir  Wm.,  on  central  heat,  435. 
Thoughts  in  a  coal  mine,  14S. 

on  fossil  footprints,  186. 


458 


INDEX. 


Thoughts  on  Mesozoic  scenes,  197. 
"         in  creation  repeated,  328. 
Thurmhofer  mines,  439. 
Thyiacotherium,  1S9. 
Tide-wave  on  the  molten  earth,  51. 

"  retards  earth's  rotation,  405. 

Time,  geological,  156,  245. 

"  "  estimated,  245. 

"      consumed  in  coal-making,  155. 
Tiniere,  cone  of,  308. 
Titanotherium  Prouti,  208. 
Toledo,  artesian  wells  at,  242. 
Tooth  of  time,  338. 

Torrents  from  dissolving  glaciers,  222. 
Tournol  on  primeval  man,  355. 
Trams  and  tramways,  143. 
Transitory  character  of  physical  things, 

424. 
Transportation  of  drift  by  water,  222. 
Treelessness  of  prairies,  264. 
Tree-trunks  in  coal  mines,  158, 159,  259. 

"  "  cretaceous  deposites,  259. 

Trenton  limestone  mass,  134. 
Tresavean  mine,  439. 
Triassic  Age,  173. 
Triassico-Jurassic  sandstone  and  tracks, 

180. 
Trilobites,  characters  of,  80,  317. 
"  of  Trenton  period,  108. 

"         contents  of  the  type  of,  319. 
Trocholites  ammonius,  115. 
Tropical  climates  of  early  times,  197. 
Trunks  of  trees  in  mines,  158, 159. 
Tunnel  at  Chicago,  440. 
Tunnels  in  mining  regions,  440. 
Turner's  Falls,  footprints  from,  183. 
Turtles,  advent  of,  1S8. 
"       cretaceous,  190. 
"        Tertiary,  208. 
Tuscaloosa,  shingle  at,  223. 
Tylor,  A.,  on  Amiens  gravel,  367. 
Type-metal,  law  of  cooling  of,  51. 
Types  of  animal  structure,  101. 

"      organic,  succession  of,  315,  316. 

"  "       unfolded     upward     and 

downward,  317. 
Types  synthetic  or  comprehensive,  318. 

"      retrospective,  320. 

Underground  excursion,  139. 
Undulations  of  earth's  crust,  162. 
Unfolding  of  organic  life,  317. 
Uniformity  in  primeval  times,  105. 
Unity  in  the  growth  of  continents,  307. 

"     of  intelligence  in  creation,  320, 322. 
Universality  of  oldest  formations,  58. 
Upheaval  of  islands,  23. 

"         "  Eozoic  strata,  74. 

"  "  Appalachians,  162. 

Uranus  and  world-harmonies,  329. 
Urns,  360. 
Utah  Lake,  why  salt,  295. 

Valeliciana  silver  mine,  439. 

Valleys  of  erosion,  224. 

Vapor,  igneous,  primordial,  40, 416. 

"  "         existing  examples  of,  41. 

"      aqueous,  first  appearance  of,  53. 


Vastness  of  values  in  science,  421. 
Vegetable  germs  in  drift,  270. 

"         origin  of  petroleum,  2S1. 
Vegetation  before  animals,  66. 

"         first  arborescent,  12S. 

"  coal,  luxuriance  of,  153. 

"         a  purifier  of  the  atmospheie, 
160. 
Vegetation  of  Tertiary  Age,  254. 

"  "  Cretaceous  Age,  255. 

"  destroyed  by  glacier,  218, 256. 

Venango  County,  Pennsylvania,  275,  292. 
Vertebrae  of  reptiles  and*fishes,  167, 188. 
"  "        "        1S8. 

"         "  Zeuglodon,  203. 
Vertebrate   development    converges    in 

man,  375. 
Vertebrated  animals,  102. 

"  "        earliest,  126. 

"  "         order  of,  316, 326. 

"  "        prophetic  of  man, 

375. 
Vestiges  of  Creation,  46,  325. 
Virgil  on  the  Golden  Age,  3S5. 
Vishnu,  3S4. 

Vitality  of  vegetable  germs,  250, 260. 
Vogt  on  primeval  man,  306. 

"      "  cooling  of  the  earth,  403. 
Volcano  of  Santorin,  24. 
Volcanoes,  beneficence  of,  333. 

"         outlets  of  heat,  404. 

Warlike  implements  of  primeval  man, 

363. 
Washington,  Mount,  marks  of  submerg- 
ence on,  229. 
Wastage  of  heat  from  the  earth,  403, 404. 
Water,  ordeal  by,  18. 

"      as  a  rock,  37. 
"       "  invisible  vapor,  53. 
"       labors  of,  398. 
Water-sheds,  235. 
Watson,  views  by,  420. 
Watson,  J.  C,  on  precipitation  of  planets, 

420. 
Waukesha,  geology  of,  125. 
Waverly  rocks,  position  of,  127, 131, 165. 
Wealden  reptiles,  188. 
Wells  and  springs,  233. 

"      for  oil,  284,  285. 
West  Virginia  oil  region,  2S9,  292, 

"  "        salt  works,  305. 

Wheat,  Egyptian,  from  mummies,  261. 
Wheatley,  C.  M.,  on  reptiles,  170. 
Whewell  on  the  fate  of  the  solar  system, 

419. 
Whistles  in  primeval  times,  365. 
Whitney,  J.  D.,  on  California  geology,221. 
Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  156. 
Winter,  universal,  reign  of,  402. 
Wisconsin  lakes,  geology  of,  225. 
Wisdom  and  beneficence  in  coal-making, 

160. 
Wood  of  Cretaceous  Age,  259. 

"      carboniferous,  269. 
Woodstock,  Ontario,  rocks  of,  279. 
World-harmonies,  328. 
"      thoughts,  323,  328. 


INDEX. 


459 


Worm-like  forms,  rank  of,  325. 
Worthen,  A.  H.,  on  Illinois,  125. 
Wraugell  Land,  221. 
Wrinkles  forming  in  earth's  crust,  53. 

"         growth  of,  199. 
Wyraan,  J.,  on  reptiles,  170. 


Yorkshire,  England,  132. 

Zeuglodon  cetoides,  203. 

"  "       in  Wood's   Museum, 

204. 
Zodiacal  light,  410. 


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With  Maps  and  Engravings.    2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  50. 

ALISON'S  HISTORY  OF  EUROPE.  First  Series  :  From  the  Commence- 
ment of  the  French  Revolution,  in  1789,  to  the  Restoration  of  the  Bour- 
bons, in  1815.  [In  addition  tg  the  Notes  on  Chapter  LXXVI.,  which  cor- 
rect the  errors  of  the  original  work  concerning  the  United  States,  a 
copious  Analytical  Index  has  been  appended  to  this  American  edition.] 
Second  Series  :  From  the  Fall  of  Napoleon,  in  1815,  to  the  Accession  of 
Louis  Napoleon,  in  1852.    8  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $16  00. 

BANCROFT'S  MISCELLANIES.  Literary  and  Historical  Miscellanies. 
By  George  Bancroft.     Svo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 


Harper  &>  Brothers'  Valuable  Standard  Works.       3 

BALDWIN'S  PRE-HISTORIC  NATIONS.  Pre-Historic  Nations ;  or,  In- 
quiries concerning  some  of  the  Great  Peoples  and  Civilizations  of  An- 
tiquity, and  their  Probable  Relation  to  a  still  Older  Civilization  of  the 
Ethiopians  or  Cushites  of  Arabia.  By  John  D.  Baldwin,  Member  of 
the  American  "Oriental  Society.    12mo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 

BARTH'S  NORTH  AND  CENTRAL  AFRICA.  Travels  and  Discoveries 
in  North  and  Central  Africa:  being  a  Journal  of  an  Expedition  under- 
taken under  the  Auspices  of  H.  B.  M.'s  Government,  in  the  Years  1849- 
1855.  By  Henry  Barth,  Ph.D.,  D.C.L.  Illustrated.  3  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth, 
$12  00. 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER'S  SERMONS.  Sermons  by  Henry  Ward  Beeoii- 
ee,  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn.  Selected  from  Published  and  Unpub- 
lished" Discourses,  and  Revised  by  their  Author.  With  Steel  Portrait. 
Complete  in  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

LYMAN  BEECHER'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY,  &o.  Autobiography,  Corre- 
spondence, &c,  of  Lyman  Beecher,  D.D.  Edited  by  his  Son,  Ciiaki.es 
Beecher.  With  Three  Steel  Portraits,  and  Engravings  on  Wood.  In 
2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

BELLOWS'S  OLD  WORLD.  The  Old  World  in  its  New  Face :  Impressions 
of  Europe  in  1S67-1S6S.  By  Henry  W.  Bellows.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth, 
$3  50. 

BOSWELL'S  JOHNSON.  The  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  LL.D.  Including 
a  Journey  to  the  Hebrides.  By  James  Boswell,  Esq.  A  New  Edition, 
with  numerous  Additions  and  Notes.  By  John  Wilson  Ceoker,  LL.D., 
F.R.S.     Portrait  of  Boswell.    2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00. 

BROD HEAD'S  HISTORY  OF  NEW  YORK.  History  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  By  John  Romeyn  Brodhead.  First  Period,  1609-1664.  8vo, 
Cloth,  $3  00. 

BULWER'S  PROSE  WORKS.  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works  of  Edward  Bul- 
wer,  Lord  Lytton.     2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  50. 

BURNS'S  LIFE  AND  WORKS.  The  Life  and  Works  of  Robert  Burns. 
Edited  by  Robert  Chambers.    4  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $6  00. 

CARLYLE'S  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.  History  of  Friedrich  II.,  called 
Frederick  the  Great.  Bv  Thomas  Carlyle.  Portraits,  Maps,  Plans, 
&c.    6  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $12  00. 

CARLYLE'S  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  History  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Newly  Revised  by  the  Author,  with  Index,  &c.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth, 
$3  50- 

CARLYLE'S  OLIVER  CROMWELL.  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well. With  Elucidations  and  Connecting  Narrative.  2  vols.,  12mo, 
Cloth,  $3  50. 

CHALMERS'S  POSTHUMOUS  WORKS.  The  Posthumous  Works  of  Dr. 
Chalmers.  Edited  by  his  Son-in-Law,  Rev.  William  Hanna,  LL.D. 
Complete  in  9  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $13  50. 

COLERIDGE'S  COMPLETE  WORKS.  The  Complete  Works  of  Samuel 
Taylor  Coleridge.  With  an  Introductory  Essay  upon  his  Philosophical 
and  Theological  Opinions.  Edited  by  Professor  Shebb.  Complete  in 
Seven  Vols.    With  a  fine  Portrait.     Small  8vo,  Cloth,  $10  50. 

CURTIS'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  History  of  the  Origin, 
Formation,  and  Adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  By 
George  Tioknor  Curtis.    2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $6  00. 

DAVIS'S  CARTHAGE.  Carthage  and  her  Remains :  being  an  Account  of 
the  Excavations  and  Researches  on  the  Site  of  the  Phoenician  Metropolis 
in  Africa  and  other  adjacent  Places.  Conducted  under  the  Auspices  of 
Her  Majesty's  Government.  By  Dr.  Davis,  F.R.G.S.  Profusely  Illus- 
trated with  Maps,  Woodcuts,  Chromo-Lithographs,  &c.   Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00. 


4       Harper  6°  Brothers'  Valuable  Standard  Works. 

DRAPER'S  CIVIL  WAR.  History  of  the  American  Civil  War.  By  John 
W.  Draper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Physiology  in  the 
University  of  New  York.    In  Three  Vols.    8vo,  Cloth,  $3  50  per  vol. 

DRAPER'S  INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  EUROPE.  A  History 
of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe.  By  John  W.  Draper,  M.D., 
LL.D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Physiology  in  the  University  of  New 
York.    8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

DRAPER'S  AMERICAN  CIVIL  POLICY.  Thoughts  on  the  Future  Civil 
Policy  of  America.  By  John  W.  Draper,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Chemistry  and  Physiology  in  the  University  of  New  York.  Crown  Svo, 
Cloth,  $2  50. 

DU  CH AILLU'S  AFRICA.  Explorations  and  Adventures  in  Equatorial  Af- 
rica: with  Accounts  of  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  People,,  and 
of  the  Chase  of  the  Gorilla,  the  Crocodile,  Leopard,  Elephant,  Hippopo- 
tamus, and  other  Animals.  By  Paul  B.  Du  Cuaillu.  Numerous  Illustra- 
tions.   8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

DU  CHAILLU'S  ASHANGO  LAND.  A  Journey  to  Ashango  Land:  and 
Further  Penetration  into  Equatorial  Africa.  By  Paul  B.  Du  Cuaillu. 
New  Edition.    Handsomely  Illustrated.    Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

DOOLITTLE'S  CHINA.  Social  Life  of  the  Chiuese :  with  some  Account  of 
their  Religious,  Governmental,  Educational,  and  Business  Customs  and 
Opinions.  With  special  but  not  exclusive  Reference  to  Fuhchau.  By 
Rev.  Justus  Doolittle,  Fourteen  Years  Member  of  the  Fuhchau  Mis- 
sion of  the  American  Board.  Illustrated  with  more  than  150  character- 
istic Engravings  on  Wood.    2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

EDGEWORTH'S  (Miss)  NOVELS.  With  Engravings.  10  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth, 
$15  00. 

GIBBON'S  ROME.  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
By  Edward  Gibbon.  With  Notes  by  Rev.  II.  H.  Milman  and  M.  Guizot. 
A  new  cheap  Edition.  To  which  is  added  a  complete  Index  of  the  whole 
Work,  and  a  Portrait  of  the  Author.    6  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $9  00. 

GROTE'S  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.    12  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $18  00. 

HALE'S  (Mrs.)  WOMAN'S  RECORD.  Woman's  Record ;  or,  Biographical 
Sketches  of  all  Distinguished  Women,  from  the  Creation  to  the  Present 
Time.  Arranged  in  Four  Eras,  with  Selections  from  Female  Writers  of 
each  Era.  By  Mrs.  Sarah  Josepha  Hale.  Illustrated  with  more  than 
200  Portraits.    Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

HALL'S  ARCTIC  RESEARCHES.  Arctic  Researches  and  Life  among  the 
Esquimaux:  being  the  Narrative  of  an  Expedition  in  Search  of  Sir  John 
Franklin,  in  the  Years  I860, 1861,  and  1S62.  By  Charles  Francis  Hall. 
With  Maps  and  100  Illustrations.  The  Illustrations  are  from  Original 
Drawings  by  Charles  Parsons,  Henry  L.  Stephens,  Solomon  Ey  tinge, 
W.  S.  L.  Jewett,  and  Granville  Perkins,  after  Sketches  bv  Captain  Hall. 
Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

HALLAM'S  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND,  from  the  Ac 
cession  of  Henry  VII.  to  the  Death  of  George  II.    Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

HALLAM'S  LITERATURE.  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  Europe  dur- 
ing the  Fifteenth,  Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries.  By  Henry 
Hallam.    2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00. 

HALLAM'S  MIDDLE  AGES.  State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages.  By 
Henry  Hallam.    Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

IIILDRETH'S  HISTORY  of  THE  UNITED  STATES  First  Series  :  From 
the  First  Settlement  of  the  Country  to  the  Adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  Second  Series:  From  the  Adoption  of  the  Federal  Con- 
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